Sanji VS Sanji
by Ho-Ho-Noa
Summary: Sanji swooned over Zoro and showered him with praises and afternoon snacks on the Thousand Sunny's deck. Only, it's actually not the real cook of the straw hats, it's his other self who somehow took Zoro as his Nami-swan, much to Sanji's dismay. San/OCxZo
1. Chapter 1

Hello readers, Happy easter! (give chocolate eggs to everyone) New SanZo fic here. I think this one will be pretty short.

I know I should've uploaded my other ongoing stories, but this semester's quite giving me headache with loads of assignments. This fic's a sort of escape from my weekly assignments coz new ideas kept popping in my mind so instead doing those damned home works in this holiday I ended up writing this piece. I'm sorry for those of you who had been reading my other fics and who's waiting for updates but I won't continue those two until this semester's break. Okay, now on with the story. Enjoy!

Pairing: **Sanji/Sunny****xZoro**

Disclaimer: **I don't own one piece or any of its wonderful characters**. I wish I were Oda but then One Piece wouldn't even exist so I'm glad I'm not him.

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**Chapter 1**

Every pair of eyes was set on the centre of the lawn deck when Zoro and Sanji went back from the forest where the straw hats had docked their ship yesterday. None of them was able to express their shock through spoken words, or even through a simple sound. The two men could only stand there, stared back and waited for the volley of questions and shock explosions that was bound to happen soon enough.

"Wha… Wh-who is _HE_?! Why does he look like Sanji?" Usopp was the first to recover, pointing accusingly at the fake Sanji, or at least the man he assumed as the copying impostor who stood beside the real Sanji, because they were perfectly identical in appearance. Chopper ran a few circles in a panic attempt for a hiding spot before he finally buried his face behind the main mast.

"SO COOOL!! We have two Sanjis!!" Luffy exclaimed, face grinning widely in awe.

"Chill out, will you?! This is all marimo's fault!" One of the blondes said.

All eyes immediately shifted to the swordsman who only scowled back at the cook.

"_My_ fault?! You're the one who started it!"

"But thanks to _you_ we now have _him_!" The blonde who spoke earlier retorted, emphasizing on the last word to show his extreme annoyance towards the other blonde.

"You deaf or something? I told you I had no other choice. You should be grateful I didn't leave you there."

"Oh yeah? All of this won't happen if your muscle brain worked a bit harder." The cook spat.

"Know what? You're right. I should've picked him and left you behind so no one need to hear you _whining_!"

"What was that marimo?!"

"You whine!"

"Enough!" Nami stepped in and rewarded them with a big bump on their heads. The trouble Luffy had caused them was enough to give her a throbbing headache and she wouldn't tolerate the two idiots from causing additional pain to her head. They were supposed to be exploring the west part of nearby jungle to gather some emergency stock their ship lacked after Luffy had committed another irresponsible act of devouring all of their meat stock before they reach the next island.

"Nami-swan is so cute when she's angry!" Sanji beamed despite his swollen head.

"What happened in the forest?" Nami demanded, totally ignoring the cook.

"Please forgive the intrusion, but may I have the chance to explain to you of what had happened?" The other Sanji finally spoke and when Nami nodded her agreement, he continued. "He fell to the Nabia's sacred lake and she rewarded your green haired friend for his honesty."

"What? Could you be more specific? Who's Nabia?"

"She's the goddess of rivers and lakes and the lake here is one of her domain. Have you heard the story about the woodcutter who dropped his axe in a lake? Nabia appeared in front of him with a golden axe and his iron axe and asked him which one was his. When the woodcutter told her the truth she rewarded him with both axes. That's the original method, but then people are starting to know it and use it to their own advantages so she altered the tradition by showing the mirrored version of whatever fell to her lake instead of showing the better one. So that's what happened when your friend fell to her lake and… here I am." The other Sanji smiled shyly.

"So… you're the mirrored version of Sanji?" The navigator took a moment to study the two Sanjis and soon realized that the other Sanji has the visible right eye instead of the left one. "Ah, I see!" She said, between the Oohs and Ahhs of the other crewmembers as they noticed the difference too.

"A magic lake huh, I've heard the story before but I didn't know that also goes for a person." Usopp voiced his curiosity.

"What's the point? By merely showing the mirrored version, you can't test someone's honesty because they don't have any motive to lie." Zoro scratch his head.

"There's no point in it. She just continuing the tradition and do her job as a goddess I assume." Robin joined the conversation.

"Whoaa! A magic lake! Let's-"Luffy didn't get to finish his line for the red headed navigator quickly turned to him with murderous aura. "Don't even think about it, Luffy. You've caused enough trouble already!"

"What will you do now?" Chopper finally decided to involve himself in the conversation.

"Hey, why don't you join our crew?" Luffy asked excitedly. His stomach growled in anticipation from the thought of having two chefs on his ship that meant he could eat twice his usual meal everyday.

"Of course, I'd be happy to accept your generous offer. Besides, Nabia gave me to him." The new Sanji glanced bashfully to the swordsman and Zoro's face turned surprisingly a bit red at the unsuspected remark.

"What the hell?! What do you mean by that? You're _still_ me, so I won't let you give away yourself to be someone's slave, especially his!" The cook roared in rage. The thought of seeing himself obeying Zoro's every whim made him shuddered in anger and disgust.

"Heh, I think we're going to be good friends." Zoro commented and easily dodged Sanji's aimed kick for his head as he had expected it. Sanji stopped in his track when he heard his Nami-swan asked him to prepare their lunch. He went to his kitchen but when he got there his other self had already there to cook the meal for his crew. He felt his stomach churned at the sight of the other blonde as he cut, stirred, and served the meal with the same expertise and grace such as him. Actually Sanji wasn't sure whether he had the same talent as him because the man almost made him gapped in awe and he secretly wondered if he also looked like him when he worked in his kitchen. Of course he is! After all they're the same person so there's no reason to be threatened or jealous. Oh, no! He's certainly not jealous of his cooking skill! He's the best chef the straw hats could ever wish for! But he still got the most unpleasant feeling that he's not going to get along very well with this guy.

After a few days, the straw hats decided to call the other Sanji with the nickname "Sunny" to avoid confusion while communicating with the two. As you could've guessed, the name came from Luffy who first started calling him that way, when Usopp asked him why'd he called him that the monkey boy simply said it was the first thing came through his head and he liked it so that's pretty much the way Sunny got his nickname. The crew started comparing Sanji with Sunny, which always spoiled Sanji's mood till the end of the day. They came to realize that the opposite effect wasn't just for their appearance, but also in their personality. Sunny was the exact opposite version of Sanji's character. He was shy, didn't smoke or swear, sensitive, sloppy and unsure, but the most obvious thing was he showed his great attraction towards boys rather than girls which disturbed Sanji the most. So if Sanji often seen swooning and dance his way serving and praising his Nami-swan, Sunny chose to spent his time and energy on Zoro, much to Sanji's dismay.

"Nami-swan, Robin-chan, I made a special strawberry cheese cake for you!" Sanji sang while serving the girls who sat near the shade of Nami's mikan grove. Nami and Robin thanked him and he danced with heart-shaped eyes. But then he spotted Sunny climbing up to the crow's nest with a tray of wonderfully crafted midday snack for the idiot swordsman. They can hear Sunny called Zoro the same loving way as Sanji did the girls, only he did it in a more feminine way.

"Looks like swordsman-san got a new fan." Robin and Nami giggled while Sanji scowled in annoyance.

"Oh, great! My other half is a pansy and as if it's not embarrassing enough, he's gay too!" Sanji grumbled inwardly.

Why should he choose Zoro of all people? And even though the swordsman looked uncomfortable whenever Sunny was around, he treated his damn copycat a lot nicer which made Sanji wanted to kick the hell out of the bastard swordsman more.

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Yaay, Zoro is Sunny's Nami-swan! Would you be so kind to leave a review? I love reviews ^_^

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	2. Chapter 2

OMG...I guess this is one of the longest update in fanfic...

I know sorry is not enough but I'll try to make it up to you guys by trying to update more frequently next time. I won't make any promises but I'll try my best. (Writer's block GO AWAY!!!)

For now, at least I could promise you the next chapter would be updated around next week since I already finished half way and I have figured out what I would write for the remaining half.

Thanks a lot for reading, leaving reviews and for adding this fic to fav/alert list.

Um, I guess that's all I want to say.... Please enjoy

Oh, one more thing: I'd like to thank XxYourXxDisasterXx for Sunny's "Zoro-Kwaaaann". I got the great idea from her and I think it fits with Sunny so I used it in the fic. Hope u don't mind, XxYourXxDisasterXx! :)

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**Chapter 2**

"Zoro-kwaaaaannn!!" Sunny's voice called lovingly.

The swordsman rolled his eyes in annoyance. It was the fortieth time this afternoon and he was starting to get annoyed by the constant call. He didn't really mind if it was only twice or three times, especially when he saw Sanji's pissed expression looking at the tray full of treats Sunny brought lovingly to him only. No, he could still quite enjoy it after Sunny came and swooned over him for the twenty sixth time in less than two hours today because of the cook's reaction never failed to amaze him. But now it's starting to get on his nerves, seriously. How Nami and Robin could stand with all Sanji's swooning was a complete mystery to him. Perhaps that's what made Nami so cranky and violent all the time. The swordsman tried to ignore the rushing footsteps coming towards him and start counting on his push ups out loud to maintain his concentration.

"Zoro-kwan, your God-like presence outshines the sun itself!" Sunny beamed at the frowning swordsman. This kind of compliment would catch the swordsman off guard when Sunny said it for the first few times since no one ever complimented his appearance (they usually thought he was scary and he was quite content with that) so he didn't know how to react properly when the blonde fawned over him admiring his physic or confessing his undying love to him. It irritated him to no end (he refused to admit that it was because it made him nervous and became self-conscious) until at one point he didn't really care any more and decided that it was better to ignore the love-struck blonde completely.

"Do you want something?" Zoro asked nonchalantly.

"No, I just came to enjoy the view. Do you mind, Zoro-kwan?" he asked while taking a comfortable spot to lean against the railing.

"No," The green head said. "Would you stop calling me with that stupid suffix?"

"Of course, I'm sorry Zoro-kw-ah I mean Zoro-kun." He said happily.

"Zoro-kwa-kunn, you're so hot when you're sweating..." the cook sang a few moments later with both eyes turned into heart shapes.

"......" the swordsman only frowned at that.

"Zoro-kwun is so attractive even though he frowned a lot." the blonde's rambling continued a moment later.

"......" Zoro ignored him again and tried to increase his pace instead to distract himself from the blonde's intense stare.

"Zoro-kun, I was wondering..." the blonde started a few seconds later.

"_What?_" The green head finally snapped.

"Would you like to be my boyfriend?"

"What?! Hell no!" His face heated up (he refused to admit that it was a blush), but because he couldn't explain why he reacted that way, which made him confused and frustrated, he told himself that it was from anger.

"Zoro-kwaaannn..." Sunny whined. Although it's a bit annoying, the image of Sanji whined at him in such a way surprisingly made his stomach felt a bit funny.

"Look Sunny, I really need some concentration here. Could you just leave me alone?"

"Anything for you, Zoro-kwaaaannn!!" He exclaimed obediently, then taking his leave.

This docile version of Sanji was surprisingly a bigger nuisance than he had thought. Even more annoying than the real one at some rate. The weather wasn't helping either with its unbelievable heat, made him more upset than he really was when he remembered he's supposed to take his afternoon nap under a shade instead of draining himself dry doing push ups under the sun in the middle of the day. And why did he train instead of having his usual afternoon nap again? That's right, he was going to take a nap but then he was interrupted by the new cook of the Sunny so he thought it was better to train on the deck rather than being woken up for every five minutes.

The green head stopped his exercise as soon as Sunny disappeared from sight and he moved to a spot where a shade was created on the corner of the ship's wooden wall. He didn't bother to put on his shirt while leaning his head and back against the wall. The wind had became slightly cooler and the vague sound of chirping sea birds and constant waves slowly lulled him into a nice sleep. Lately, everything around Zoro had changed since Sunny joined the crew. He could barely enjoy some time alone on the ship because Sunny constantly came to him with treats or ridiculous praises especially on day time. He also rarely fight with Sanji for Sunny always interfere and it ended up being the fight between the two cooks almost all the time. Yes, the tension between the two had been building up and the clash was clearly unavoidable. The crew had expected it would happen sooner or later. It was obvious that Sanji and Sunny hated each other since everyone saw what happened a week ago.

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_flashback_

"Zoro-kwan! I made you something sp-" Sunny's voice was heard from the direction of the galley.

"Oi egghead, don't waste my precious ingredients on the idiot marimo! I bought it only for the ladies!" Sanji shouted from somewhere nearby. Usopp, Chopper, Luffy and Robin who were playing card on the lawn deck turned their heads towards the two blondes.

"Don't call Zoro-kwan that, curly bastard!" The other cook finally snapped. He had been restraining himself every time Sanji called Zoro with names or when the teen scolded him for wasting food on the boys, especially the swordsman. Quite surprisingly to everyone, Sunny could be as foul-mouthed as Sanji if he wanted to. Even Sanji was slightly taken aback by the dirty-mouthed Sunny since he was usually more soft-spoken.

"What did you call me? You're curlier than me, curlyque!" Sanji bellowed.

"Yours are weirder, weirdo!" Sunny spat.

"Shut up you curly brow!"

"No, you shut up, idiot brow!"

"Copycat!"

"Skirt chaser!"

"pansy!"

"pervert!"

"I'll teach you some manner, bastard!"

"bring it on, jerk!"

Although the swordsman didn't really like being defended from an argument like a child, he kept silent while wondering what was going to happen. It was kind of weird and funny to watch the two Sanjis yelled and throwing insults at each other. It was like watching the cook standing before a mirror while insulting his reflection like a complete idiot. It was amazing how the insults worked effectively at getting into each of their nerves. Zoro was pretty sure even he couldn't make Sanji's face turned that red in anger in such a short period of time and he swore he could almost see smoke coming out of the cook's ears.

Then they started attacking each other with kicks and punches (while Sanji never used his hands to attack, Sunny didn't hesitate to use it in a fight even though he mainly used his legs). Neither of them showed any intention to loose and the fight got pretty bad. The crew members who were watching on the deck became aware of how serious the fight really was then Franky and Luffy separated the two blonds before they killed each other for real. Every one went about their usual businesses the rest of the day, even though each on them was keeping an eye on the two cooks and made sure they weren't alone in the same place. Zoro didn't think it was necessary. He argued that they only fought over stupid thing and would instantly forgot about it but the girls, especially Nami, thought differently. So under the navigator's threat, Zoro had to make sure he kept Sunny preoccupied by pretending to take interest in Sunny's cooking and asked him questions about it even though the swordsman couldn't recall any of the food's name the other cook had mentioned proudly while Nami and Robin kept Sanji busy with small talks or praises on whatever treat he presented them.

_End of flashback_

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"Land-hooooooooooo!!!" Luffy's shout from the crow's nest was heard through out the ship.

"Huh? Another island already?" Zoro muttered while rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"What island are we heading, Nami?" Usopp enquired from his sitting spot on the lawn deck.

"It was once called Faraway Kingdom but now it is known as Faraway ruins." said the orange head girl after taking one last glance at a map in her hands. She and Robin were just came out from the girl's cabin after hearing Luffy's report.

"Woohooooooo Takeaway, we're coming!" Luffy cheered.

"It's Faraway, idiot!" Nami shouted but the captain was too excited to pay attention.

"Faraway ruins? What happened there?" Chopper asked from his spot next to Usopp.

"The once prosperous country was attacked and plundered by pirates then left to rote." Robin told him. "I heard a mysterious plaque stroke the island many years ago, forcing the rest of the survivors to flee.

"So is it now abandoned?"

"That's what me and Nami-san think."

"Chopper, Usopp, get the rest of us to gather here. We're docking about an hour from now." Nami told the two.

"Right." They said in unison.

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"Alright guys, this island we're stopping is quite different from any other places we've visited before. It may not be as dangerous since it's most likely had been abandoned. I'm sure there's nothing you monsters couldn't handle but I have to point out that it's not a play ground and anyone who causes trouble will suffer _great_ consequence. For example, they wouldn't be allowed to _eat_ for a _week_." Nami pointed out and grinned victoriously when she saw Luffy stopped abruptly from his current activity of picking his nose and gulped, a sign that the boy had heard her threat.

"We are only here to gather as much resources as we can while waiting for the log pose to set for the next island but since neither me or Robin know how long it will take, we need to get any information we could find. I'm dividing our crew into three groups to guard the ship, while the other to gather resources and informations from the island. Franky and Usopp would guard the ship. Me, Luffy, Sunny and Robin are group A. Sanji, Chopper, Zoro, you're group B." A loud groan and a grumble was heard from the latter group once she finished.

"Anyone complains or tries to get others into swapping team will be grounded." She added quickly, effectively stopping Sanji who just opened his mouth to object and Zoro who was about to intimidate Usopp to agree swapping team with him.

"Nami-swan is so smart!" Sanji beamed with heart-shaped eyes.

"Each group has been divided based on its effectiveness, so all you have to do is work together." She said again, ignoring the cook completely.

"Effective my ass." The swordsman muttered under his breath but apparently could still be heard by Sanji who quickly snapped.

"Bastard marimo, how dare you talk dirty to Nami-sw-"

"Take that back, damn womaniser!" Sunny glared at the cook.

Nami groaned and raised her voice in order to be heard among the bickering boys. "Believe it or not, Zoro, Sanji-kun is the best person to avoid you from getting lost, which is the last thing we need, and I don't put Sanji-kun in the same group with me and Robin because he would be too busy distracting us. And Chopper is there to prevent any unnecessary fights should you two make any attempts."

"D-do I distract you, Nami-swaaann??" Sanji sang happily, clearly not getting the navigator's notion of him being a nuisance.

"I don't lost!" The green head crossed his arms and grumbled.

"Nami, can I be in Zoro-kun's team. I don't trust the prick over there." Sunny asked hopefully.

"I'm not the one who appeared from suspicious damn lake, pansy ass! I don't trust you with Robin-chan either!" Sanji barked angrily without knowing why exactly he felt more irritated than he should have seeing his other self acting protective over the God damned three swords freak. He decided that it was mainly because he hated Sunny. He probably hated that damn faker more than the marimo. That's right, he hated marimo didn't he? Then why would he be mad seeing the new chef fawning over the guy he hated all day long? Was it just because he hated seeing himself being the swordsman's servant and obeying his every whim? No, he knew Zoro didn't enjoy being the object of Sunny's desires. Probably the green head hated the special treatments as much as Sanji did. He just pretended he enjoyed it whenever he noticed Sanji was around solely to annoy him. That fucker... Somehow though, this knowledge lifted Sanji's mood a little bit. At least he knew Zoro didn't like Sunny as much as he had originally thought. But this rose other questions that was quite disturbing; Why would he concern about Zoro's opinion towards the new cook? Was he concerned that Zoro might like Sunny better than him? Was he jealous?

"I think both you and Zoro wouldn't be able to concentrate on the tasks fully under one team, Sunny." Nami reasoned. "Don't worry, I believe we could all lean on each other."

"Hey guys, we're almost arrive at the shore." Usopp informed his friends.

"Yosh! Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!" Luffy chanted, barely able to contain his excitement.

"I could handle a big adventure today. I'm feeling super!" Franky stoke a pose.

"Right, remember to stay in your team. Oh, and one more thing, there are rumours of strange things occurred on the island although me and Robin doubted it. Just stay alert and be back before dark." Said Nami.

"S-Strange things? What kind of strange t-things?" Usopp stopped dead on his track but Nami just glared at the cowardly sharpshooter.

"I knew you would be scared Usopp, so I put you on the ship guarding duty." The orange haired girl said.

"D-don't be stupid, why would the great Captain Usopp scared of some strange island?!" Usopp put his hands on his hips and puffed his chest to look brave but unfortunately his knees couldn't stop shaking.

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to be continued...

Not much happening in this chapter... but this part is necessary to keep the plot flowing. Next time will have more SanZo/SunZo so stay tuned.

Review please?


	3. Chapter 3

Hi sweeties! This is chapter 3 as promised. I skipped a day, but oh well it's close enough. The plot changed a lot from my first plan but then again it often happens to me so there's nothing special about it.

Thanks a ton for the readers and reviewers! I love y'all!

Anyway, please enjoy! A small early gift for your new year! :D

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**Chapter 3**

"Shitty brainless swordsman..." The cook cursed while he struggled to make his way through the vast area of muddy soil without soaking more of his pair of expensive shoes in the wet substance of dirt and only God knows what else.

"What was that, crap cook?!" Zoro jerked his head back at the blonde.

"I said, you're a brainless piece of a swordsman who is good at nothing but causing us trouble." He answered.

"Screw you, stupid dart brow! Who told you to follow me anyway?" The green head snapped.

"We're supposed to stick together, asshole! If it's not for Nami-swan I would have leave you and your idiocy!"

"Say that again and you're dead, skirt slave!" The swordsman growled.

"What did you call me?!" The cook's blood started to boil in anger and strangely enough, excitement. It's been a while since his argument with the swordsman hadn't being interrupted by the other blonde and this rare opportunity reminded him that he was kind of missed the old days when he could bicker and fight Zoro whenever he felt like it.

"Uhm guys, please don't fight each other." Chopper piped in from his spot between the cook and the swordsman. "We don't have much time until sun sets."

The two straw hats glared at each other for a moment longer before finally agreeing with the reindeer. Both of them muttered curses under their breaths then reluctantly turning away to continue on their tracks. Fifteen minutes later, they reached the end of the muddy area to the more solid ground where the trees grew slightly denser.

"Hey look, there's a lake over there!" Chopper announced while pointing his little hooves at the direction slightly to their right, not too far away from them.

"Finally. We could probably find some fruits or animals nearby." Said the blonde.

They all increased their paces and soon got to the edge of the lake that was surrounded by the same trees that bore pretty white flowers.

"Whoaa, awesome!!!" The little reindeer's round eyes gleamed with total amusement. Sanji and Zoro smirked. It really was a beautiful sigh to behold. The flawless water surface reflected the trees that grew on its edges and the clear blue sky above. The white flower petals dotted the clean water surface and the warm breeze blew through the trees, bringing the pleasant fragrant of the flowers to the three appreciative audiences currently standing nearby. Unfortunately, they didn't have that much time before dusk to enjoy the view longer so they decided to move on and begin scouring the area for any foods.

"Chopper, you and marimo could begin searching around the left side area of the lake. I'll go to the right side area, okay?" Sanji said. "We should meet up again at this spot around three hours from now. Make sure that idiot over there not straying alone and got himself lost."

"Shut the fuck up, bastard!" Said the swordsman heatedly, making the blonde snickered inwardly. Sometimes he deliberately said or did something more than necessary just to irritate the grumpy swordsman. It was just too tempting.

"Sure, Sanji! You can count on me!" Chopper said seriously.

"Just shut up, Chopper!" Sanji could still hear the green head barked at Chopper who told him to not wander more than three metres radius from him while their little group went toward separate ways. The cook snickered softly at that. Zoro sounded cute sometimes................. Wait, _What?!!_

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Not long after they started, Zoro and Chopper had found some overgrown wild berries vegetation not far from the lake. They gathered as many fruits as they could then decided to explore the area a little more before going back to the meeting point. Chopper had been thinking to try finding some plants for his medicines as well but later cancelled it since he didn't think they have enough time. The two crew mates then stumbled upon an abandoned cottage which roof had partially collapsed and the door had rotten. The insides of the small building wasn't in better condition than the outside. Clattered kitchenwares and broken furnitures inside were covered with dirt. Some Bushes and weeds had grown from under the rotten floorboards. They searched for any useful journal or notes but the only written thing they found was a slightly tattered pocket-sized cooking book. Most of the pages were still intact and readable. It had some collection of weird looking recipes that was alien to Zoro but he thought the cook might be interested so he took it with him. After that, they headed back to meet Sanji at the edge of the lake.

"Zoro! Chopper!" A happy voice that couldn't be mistakenly belonged to a certain captain called from above them.

"Luffy? What are you doing here?" The little doctor tilted his head up towards a tree nearby where Luffy was perching on a rather unstable branch.

"Looking for adventure!" Came the answer. The boy looked back at his two crew members as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Luffy, you idiot! How many time have I told you to wait up?!" Nami's angry yell was heard not a minute after.

"Chopper and Zoro? Why are you here?" Nami appeared from under a thick bush, looking like she was just being chased by a herd of elephant. "Let me guess, your group went _way_ off course because of Zoro." She sighed tiredly.

"What the hell are you talking about, witch? We're in the right direction." The swordsman started.

"No Zoro, you're supposed to explore east, not west. But why should I waste my time explaining this to an idiot who think up is north? Chopper, why did you and Sanji let this happened?" She already turned to Chopper before Zoro could snap back. The reindeer fidgeted and muttered an apology while struggling to put the complicated situation he and Sanji were experiencing into words to the hot-tempered girl.

"Stop bullying him, witch. If you want someone to blame go bitchin' on the damn cook." Said Zoro.

"Shut up, Zoro! We're wasting precious time because of you. I'm adding two thousands belis to your debt."

"_What??!!_"

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Sanji have been exploring a bit too far from his original intention but since he hadn't been able to find anything, he supposed it was okay. He decided to go further on his track, determined to find something for his Nami-swan when he came back to the ship. The area wasn't grown with as much trees as before and it had turned much quieter since no birds seemed to fly around there and the wind didn't have a lot of leaves to blow through. Suddenly he sensed something was off and decided to stop and listen more carefully. There were ruffling sounds of dry leaves and the cracking sound of dead branch behind him and instantly he knew he was being followed. The blonde smirked. He supposed he was quite lucky. He didn't have to find any animals to hunt, they found him. From the sound of it, the animal probably was a medium sized predator so it would be very easy for him to kill. The sounds got closer and the blonde turned sharply and prepared himself to face anything that was going to come out from behind a bush where the sounds were coming from. Something was coming out of the thick bush and the cook prepared to dodge an attack when blurs of a very familiar blonde appeared before him.

"It's _you_?! Why the _hell_ are you _following_ me?!!" Sanji barked at the other blonde who was still busy dusting some leaves off of his green shirt with flower pattern on it.

"What are you talking about? I'm here _first_!" He said.

"You're the worst liar I've ever known! Just admit it. You _followed_ me!" Accused Sanji.

"No, I'm not! Just so you know, you're the last person I'd want to follow. Where are Zoro and Chopper?"

"They're not here. We split up to save some time to gather anything useful we could find. They're exploring the left area from the lake and hopefully your dearest marimo wouldn't get in Chopper's way or get lost again."

"Don't call Zoro-kun that, stupid cook!"

"or what, pansy shirt?" Sanji taunted.

"or you'll be very sorry later."

"Baka cook, are you threatening me?!"

"No, I'm giving you an advice."

"You think I'm crazy? Why would I take any advice from you of all people?"Sanji scoffed mockingly.

"Because I'm right." Sunny said, "And by the way, _yes_, I think you're crazy _and_ stupid."

"Ok, that's it! We'll see if your kick is as fierce as your filthy mouth, lake boy!" Sanji snarled and got into a fighting stance which was mirrored by the other blonde.

"Gentlemen, I thought I heard your voices nearby." Robin's calm voice interrupted the two blondes.

"Robin" said Sunny.

"Robin-chwaaann!!" Sanji instantly beamed at the approaching Archaeologist who smiled slightly at him.

"I didn't expect to meet you here, Sanji-kun but I suppose it's not surprising as well." She said knowingly. But then again you don't have to be a genius to guess how or to be exact, who had caused the other group to be lost and ended up on the completely opposite direction.

"Robin-chan, you're so smart! As you know, our team has the disadvantage of having a complete moron who's always lost."Sanji said with hearts in his eyes. The raven haired archaeologist aware that the other cook would snap at Sanji's insult on their green haired swordsman so she interrupted again before Sunny could say anything to Sanji.

"Looks like it's getting dark soon. Let's find the others and head back to the ship."

"Wonderful idea, Robin-chan! I told Chopper to meet up at the clearing at the south side of the lake. I'll lead you there." With that, the three of them started walking toward the destined place.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"Nami-swaaaaann!!" Sanji called lovingly when their little group approached the clearing and saw the orange haired girl walked back and forth while occasionally wrote something on the paper she had in her hand. Usopp and Franky were standing nearby with big backpacks on their backs.

"Hey, why are they here?" Sunny voiced his curiosity.

"Great, everyone's here!" Said the navigator to the arriving straw hats. "We have a new plan, guys. Since we didn't meet our goals today, I think it's better to camp here until we find all the things we need . This island is bigger than I had predicted and I doubt we could gather all of it before sunset tomorrow so I think it's best to not waste more time going out and coming back to The Sunny by setting our temporary base here."

"What about our ship?" asked Sunny.

"Franky and Usopp had moved it to a small cove nearby before I asked them to come here with camping tools. The Sunny will be safe there until we finish. Luckily, I brought mini den den mushi with me so we don't need to go back to tell them." Nami grinned and paused briefly before continuing, ignoring Sanji who was babbling about how lucky he was to be in the company of a beautiful and intelligent lady like her. "I told Luffy, Chopper, and Zoro to get some dry woods half an hour ago, they'll be back soon."

"Great planning there, girlie. Let's start setting up our camp." Franky said.

"Do we have enough to cook?" Sanji asked, a tad worried about his crew well being. This part of the island didn't seem to have plenty to eat.

"I bring some food supply we have left from the kitchen. Luffy caught a wild boar a while ago and Chopper and Zoro got a lot of berries. I think we should have enough until tomorrow morning." Usopp patted his big bloating backpack where he stuffed as many food from the galley as he can in it.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

The day was getting dark soon. The straw hats had all gathered on the clearing and were currently busy with their own tasks helping to set up the camp.

"Luffy!!! What did I tell you about not making a crazy bonfire?! Do you want all the marines to come here?!!" Nami punched and shrieked at the rubber boy who had built a massive bonfire instead of a camp fire like she had asked him to make.

"But Nami, you said there's nobody live here." Luffy whined while rubbing his sore head and pouted at the navigator who suddenly grew fangs on her mouth.

"Sis, think about what captain bro said. It would be super when we lit it." Franky tried to persuade the navigator.

"You helped him built it didn't you?!!" Nami grinned darkly that enough to make a big man like Franky gulped and back away a little.

"How am I supposed to cook on that?" Sunny enquired.

"Oi, I'm cooking tonight!" Sanji, who heard the other cook, quickly bellowed from his spot where he and Robin had finished setting up a tent for the girls.

Meanwhile, Usopp and Chopper were trying their luck to catch something from the lake with their fishing poles. Zoro was lounging nearby since Usopp insisted that they would need him if they catch something huge from the lake, like a nessy or something. The swordsman rolled his eyes and said it was impossible and that they shouldn't go fishing if they were scared, but he didn't leave his spot either. He supposed he could use the opportunity to take a brief nap before dinner.

"Usopp, I think I catch something!" Chopper squealed excitedly and began to reel but the fish seemed to be stubborn and resisted the pull.

"Reel it in while it's not struggling, Chopper!" Usopp told him.

"I'm trying, but it doesn't move!" The reindeer said.

"Zoro, help! Chopper caught something big!" Usopp told the sleeping swordsman.

"Huh?" The green head cracked his eyes opened and looked at the two panicked straw hats. He stood up and put down the three swords on his waist carefully then pull off his haramaki and his shirt as well.

"What are you doing?! Quick, the string's gonna snap!" The sharpshooter screeched at Zoro.

"Calm down, I'm coming!" The swordsman got into the lake and swam to where the 'stubborn fish' were. It was quite deep down there so Zoro could dive in and found out that the 'fish' was actually a sunken log of tree. Those silly kids, he told them there was no fish in this lake but they didn't listen.

He swam up to the surface to told them, "Oi, it's a tree log. I'm going to unhook the fishing hook, don't pull it, okay?"

As soon as he saw Chopper nodded, he dove back in to do his job. He began to swim back up once he finished but suddenly he felt someone pulled his waist from behind. The green head jerked his head and his eyes widened to find a very familiar dark green eyes looking back at him.

"Why don't you take a rest for a while? I'll help you in the meantime." The man's smirk was filled with similar confidence and slight arrogance such as his. And then all the green head could see was blankness.

to be continued....

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Hope the plot isn't too boring... There are not much happening between Sanji, Zoro, or Sunny yet. But I need to write this first to set up the plot on the new island...

Review please? :3


	4. Chapter 4

Hi, my lovelies this is chapter 4!

Sorry for the long wait ^_^'' Um, the reason was I got another I-can't-find-an idea-for continuing the plot-disease. (runs away)

Anyway please enjoy the update, hopefully this'll satiate you all a bit.

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**Chapter 4**

".....ro..."

"...oro!"

"Zoro!" The swordsman could vaguely heard someone called out again while his senses slowly coming back to his cold body. Someone gave him CPR and pounded at his chest diligently. "Can you hear me?"

Another air being blown into his lungs made him coughed water violently through his mouth and nose. After the coughs subsided he opened his eyes to find all the other straw hats' face looking down at him in concern.

"Thank God, Zoro! We almost lost you!" He could see Chopper's brown eyes grown big and watery. Luffy grinned widely and chirped his first mate's name, resisting the urge to glomp him in his delight since Chopper had asked everyone to clear out of his way. Nami and Usopp sighed in relieve. Franky said something about an emotional memory when he was almost drowned as a child then saved by his late foster father, Tom and insisted that he wasn't crying although no one was really paying attention at his sniffling figure except Robin. She was patting soothingly at the cyborg's arm, her face showed slight amusement at his antics. Sunny was busy asking whether Zoro was alright and offered him any favour he could think of while Sanji, who was kneeling on his side, scowled down at the green head.

"Idiot moss for brain!" The cook spat.

"The hell, cook?!" Zoro, who had propped himself into a sitting position, spat back and glared at the blonde.

"You fell fucking asleep in the lake! You think you're some kind of a lake plant or something? Not that I ever expected your brain bigger than that of a plant-if they even have any-, but I thought even you could tell that was dangerous!" Sanji's little outburst made the green head stopped a beat and missed his change to throw back any sarcastic insult. Even Sunny didn't shout back at the cook immediately. The cook wasn't supposed to be this angry wasn't he? Who the hell he think he was scolding the swordsman like that while the one who was almost drown to death was Zoro!

"Y-You...!! I didn't sleep, you moron! I swam back up and headed to the shore and- " He stopped abruptly, looking uncertain and at a lost as to how he ended up drowning instead. He gazed at the curious faces around him while trying hard to dig into his memory and realised that he was as clueless as the rest of his crew mates. He couldn't remember anything that could have prevented him from swimming up to the surface.

"I know! You got lost in there didn't you?" Luffy offered helpfully. A vein popped on the swordsman's head and he would have pounced at the rubber boy if Chopper wasn't kneeling between them while asking Zoro questions whether he felt pain or numbness anywhere and so on.

"It's lucky Sanji jumped in almost immediately when we noticed you didn't resurface in time." Usopp said. The sharpshooter was too scared to jump in thinking that Zoro was being attacked by a lake monster (even now his knees were still shaking slightly) and Chopper was panicking, running around screaming for doctor before remembering it was himself and then, realising Zoro would need to be brought back to the surface first before any doctor could treat him, the reindeer screamed for someone's help because he would've drown if he himself went after the swordsman (he forgot that lake's water was different from sea water).

Suddenly Zoro realised why Sanji was soaking wet from head to toe and cold water was still dripping down his blonde bangs and his chin (Sunny was all wet too and Zoro could guess that he insisted to be the one to get him out of the water but it seemed like Sanji jumped in first). And judging from the crappy cook's position that was closest to Zoro's head, it was most likely that he was the one who gave him mouth-to-mouth. Faint blush quickly crept up his cheeks without him knowing why in the world would he react that way towards the blonde and in his embarrassment, he quickly picked himself up and walked off in somewhat sluggish movements, all the while trying hard to avoid Sanji's eyes. Chopper yelled at him that he hadn't finished checking him up thoroughly while following the swordsman.

The cook seemed to notice it and blushed involuntarily at the man's awkwardness. He could still feel the ache on his chest from the fear of the swordsman wasn't breathing any more and the weird sensations in his gut when their lips touched for the first time. The fact that his brain made huge effort to memorise every detail of that wet parted lips against his own and the sturdy jawline against his palms wasn't helping his situation at all. Was he, in some very odd way, had grown feelings towards him? As if the fact that it was for another male wasn't disturbing enough, it was for the goddamned green haired swordsman he loathed the most! Well, sure Zoro had good look and alluring voice but that didn't mean..... wait, there's no way in hell he thought Zoro was attractive! He was every inch a complete opposite of beauty that Sanji had in mind. No feminine curves, no smooth petite legs, no soft pink lips, no sweet smells, no boobs. All about him was screaming rough and masculinity that Sanji thought he would never be attracted to, that was, until he saw Zoro.

Fine! What if he really had a _little_ crush on the three swords freak? Probably the fucker had some weird aura about him that attracted straight men (Sanji was born a hundred and ten percent straight, damnit!) so it's not because the cook was gay or anything, in other words, it's entirely the marimo head's fault! But the point was, he's not going to do anything about it so it all didn't really matter. Right?

* * *

The night fell upon the woods and the straw hats were dancing wildly or sitting around the big fire after they had their dinner. Nami and Luffy had finally came to an agreement about the size of the camp fire and the result was a small bonfire that was slightly smaller than the one they had in Skypiea's jungle. Robin had teased the navigator about her having a soft spot for their carefree captain but Nami had denied it by saying that she had only did it so he would stop whining and literally clinging to her ankle like it was a life line until she let him have a bonfire.

As expected, Luffy and Franky were singing and dancing like the two idiots they were around the fire while Usopp told another of his tell tales to the easily amused Chopper on one side of the camp, opposite of girls' side. Sanji was fawning over the girls as usual while offering them their second desserts and Sunny was busy with trying to amuse Zoro who sat not so far away. Or rather, trying to keep himself amused by being around the green head with whatever excuses he could think of.

The girls had insisted politely that they were too full to have any drinks or desserts and so Sanji was left with nothing to do. The plates and the cooking pots were washed already and the left overs were put aside. He sat and joined the chatting girls for a while. They talked about shoes and whether they should buy higher or lower heels on the next island and Sanji was chirping and cooing here and there about their incredible beauties and how his love won't change no matter what kind of shoes they were wearing. The cook got a little distracted when the girls started talking about their experiences wearing particular type of shoes, about how Nami thought peep-toe shoes felt better than other kind of shoes although she still preferred open shoes with straps and Robin explained some boots weren't as comfy as it looked, and the bored cooked stared absent mindedly to the flickering fire that wasn't as big and glorious as before but could still warm the straw hats until a couple of hours more against chilly night wind.

Luffy and Chopper had already dozed off by the fire with blankets carelessly pulled up covering their mid sections. Franky sat quietly on one spot under a nearby tree, idly strumming notes on his guitar that looked ridiculously small on his lap. Usopp rolled out his sleeping mattress and got his feet under his blanket, ready to sleep. The girls began to yawn softly between their conversation that had died down into a slow, lazy talk. Sanji's eyes shifted to the remaining straw hats on the spot nearest to the lake. His eyes narrowed in annoyance at the other blonde's attitude around the cabbage head. He hadn't stopped his fawning over the marimo since dinner. What a shameless jack ass. But then it was probably due to Zoro's reactions toward the blond. He seemed not as reluctant as before.... in fact, he was actually the one who flirted the love-struck cook and made him looked like a complete idiot!

Sanji blinked several times and shook his head slightly before staring back at the two straw hats. It couldn't be real, could it? How come the green head grew fond of the annoying blond in less than a day? (Not that he intentionally paid great attention toward Zoro's interactions with Sunny, really. And no, he never tried to calculate how much Sunny annoyed Zoro judging from the crease or the twitch of his brows.) And more importantly, was Zoro _gay_?! This was all seemed wrong but the scene of the two men flirting before his eyes couldn't be more real.

"Oh, God. Is it just me, or Zoro is kissing Sunny right now?" Nami gaped disbelievingly.

"No, Nami-san I see them too." Answered Robin.

"I'm not really surprised that Zoro prefers boys, but—_oh. my. God_-did he just do it with his tongue?" The orange haired girl's face grew redder by the second and received a soft giggle from the raven haired Archaeologist. Sanji was glowing red too and he was thankful that the girls' attention wasn't at him. He felt his cheeks burned up and blamed the heat from the fire but he couldn't take his eyes off the hot wet tongue that shamelessly licked its way down that jawline and blonde goatee.

_His_ goatee.

Sanji gulped hard. It was like seeing himself being licked by Zoro and screw it if he knew why it made his blood travel south by the mental image. The girls' amused giggles broke him from his stupor and realised that the two men had stopped from their previous activity, realising that they had audiences.

"Please don't mind us, boys. We're just leaving." Robin said, her lips curled up into a somewhat apologetic smile.

"Er, y-yes. Do go on." Nami stammered. Her hand waved dismissively. Robin helped her got up and leave for their tent. Sanji could still hear voices from the girls' tent after they got in. Nami couldn't stop her giggling while Robin's calm voice said something to her. Apparently he was not the only one enjoying the 'show'. Quickly realising that his prolonged stay would be most awkward, Sanji got on his feet and went to bed, turning his back on the two remaining straw hats. The embarrassed cook tried to hide his awkwardness with a scowl and kept his eyes away from them. But then he noticed that he scowled because he was angry. Why would he feel ashamed? He shouldn't be when he's not the one committing audacious act and he shouldn't be upset if Zoro decided to kiss Sunny or any other guy for that matter, should he? The blonde grunted inwardly and blocked his inner thoughts since it only confused and irritated him more. He shut his eyes and brain (if he could, he certainly would!) and fell into a dreamless sleep, only to wake up the next morning into a bigger surprise.

To be continued...

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Review please? :3


	5. Chapter 5

Hiya, folks! I truly appreciate your support and your reviews had been my strongest motivation in writing this. I'm so glad to have you guys as my readers, You all rocks!!

So, here it is, chapter 5 finished and I hope you all enjoy it. It's also slightly longer than the previous chapters, if you notice. :)

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**Chapter 5**

Sanji was woken by a gruff voice calling him back to the conscious world.

"Crap cook! Oi, wake up!" said the familiar voice.

The cook grunted in irritation, blinked his eyes several times and cursed some more realising he had been sleeping on one side of his body all night long and now his right shoulder felt stiff and numb.

"What is it, you shitty marimo? It's not even dawn yet!" The cook grumbled while rubbing sleep from his eyes. The silhouette of Zoro squatting before him came into focus, making him frown, but the chilly air was refreshing and the scent of humid grass and dew filled his nostrils, lifting his mood a little bit. The early sunlight wasn't going to shine down on the landscape until at least an hour more. It was really odd that the notoriously lazy swordsman had actually woken up before him but he wasn't quite interested in bringing the subject up for the moment so he just levered himself into a sitting position and glared at the green head impatiently, waiting him to explain what caused the interruption. The stupid marimo had better got a _very_ good reason for this!

"Did anyone tell you something yesterday?" asked the green head. Now that the blond had adjusted to the dim surroundings, he could see the swordsman's confused face looking back at him.

"the hell are you talking about?" The cook sat straighter, gave his stiff shoulder a slow massage with his free hand and lowered his gaze abruptly. The event last night instantly replayed in his head and made him nervous to be around the green head. He probably could still salvage some of his dignity if Zoro wasn't so close but the sudden proximity caused weird reactions to the cook. The heat radiating from the swordsman made his hair stood on end and the distinct scent of musk and steel from the man made him a bit light headed.

"Where has everyone gone to?" Zoro asked, either not noticing the cook's odd behaviour or chose to ignore it.

"Huh? What do you mean?" The blond stopped and blinked, then looked around the camp where he thought he had last seen his nakamas before he went to bed. He whipped his head from side to side like a confused animal who had just been left by its herd. The rest of the straw hats were nowhere to be seen, leaving only unruly blankets and empty bed mattresses.

"What--? Where's-?" He started, his mouth opened and closed like a fish.

"Don't look at me, I have no idea." The swordsman shrugged a little then continued, seeing that the cook had stood rapidly and rushed to the girls' tent. "Robin and Nami aren't there. Don't think they're being attacked. I didn't hear anything last night and there's no signs of struggle, they all just... disappear." The last word was spoken in a puzzled tone, as if the swordsman was asking himself a question.

The girls weren't in their tent, just like Zoro said. Sanji stood at the tent entrance for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then he turned to scan the camp while trying to find an answer to their predicament.

"It seems like they didn't plan to go out for long so I decided to wait for awhile. But it's almost morning and none hasn't came back." Zoro had stood up and nodded his head to the spot where Usopp's and Chopper's bags were put near a tree root. They never left without their bags even for a brief supplies restocking on a port town, Sanji and Zoro knew it.

"No, I don't think that's what happened. They would surely tell us. Nami would tell us before." The cook shook his head disapprovingly.

"Believe me, she doesn't tell me her plan almost the entire time up until she _needs_ me to slash some heads." Zoro scoffed.

"That's because you are too _busy_ sleeping on the deck when everyone else is listening, moss head! You think this is normal?!"

"If something happened, one of us would've heard it, crap cook! There's no way-"

"Well, maybe you _would_ have if you weren't too busy trying to get into _his_ pants!"

The shouting contest stopped abruptly and replaced by a complete silence. The tension between the two men hung in the air as they glared angrily at each other. Then suddenly the green head made a low weird noise. It was very low and almost inaudible at first before it turned into a long, mocking, exaggerated chuckle.

"What on earth are you talking about, shitty bastard?" The first mate looked at him like the cook was a complete loony in a strap jacket who claimed that he was his son.

For a split second, Sanji regretted bringing up the subject, but it's too late to back away now. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't pretend like you didn't see that we saw you and Sunny last night."

The green head was silent for a moment as if he wasn't sure he heard it right and gave the cook a weird look. "You're _nuts_, cook." he said. "You're outta your mind."

Sanji faltered a bit, seeing that the swordsman was genuinely bewildered at his accusation. Was the cook had somehow been wrong about what he thought he'd seen? Was they not really kissing? But the girls saw it too so it couldn't be wrong. And he was sure as hell he saw them, he even could tell every details of how that expert tongue moved slowly along the blond's jaw before their lips met again in a heated kiss. He could still feel his cheeks burning. He knew what he saw.

However, this was really not the right time to dwell on irrelevant matters. Their crew members were still missing without a trace and they needed to know their whereabouts as soon as possible. They needed a plan.

"Look, marimo, I don't give a shit about you or that pansy cook." The blond started. "The ladies are my main priority here."

"Figured. Same goes to you and your crappy hallucinations, bastard." Zoro turned on his heels and waved dismissively, not bothering to look at the blonde and walked towards the forest. "I'll be back when you got some of your sanity back."

"Big word from an ape--Hey, wait a sec! Where do you think you're going?!"

"What do you think it looks like?" The green head stopped briefly and gave him an annoyed side way glance.

"You'll lost and we'll never get out of this fucking island, marimo! We need a better plan!" However annoying, Sanji's reasoning seemed to take an effect on the swordsman. He stopped again and turned reluctantly, silently challenging his crew mate to tell whatever his so called plan he claimed better.

"It doesn't do much good to go search for them in the dark. We'll start after it's brighter." Sanji sighed and took a seat near the dying camp fire. He stared at the dying ember for a moment before adding more dry woods into it to warm himself a bit.

Although seemed reluctant, Zoro knew that the cook had a point. The light and the warmth from the fire looked quite inviting in the cold weather so he came and sat by the fire, across from the cook who was poking the burning woods slightly with a stick to help it burned better.

"I take it you checked our camping area. Why didn't you wake me earlier?" The blonde started. The yellow light was dancing on his tired face.

"I told you, cook, I thought they intended to go back soon. So I waited."

"For how long?"

"... a couple hours or so, I guess."

"A couple hours! What went into your head?! Clearly something had happened to them and you decided to wait?!" The cook suddenly snapped and glared at the man, demanding a answer, but the swordsman had his mouth shut tightly.

Then it dawned on him. Something wasn't right. "Wait, you didn't tell me everything, did you?"

"...It's not important."

"Everything concerning the crew's safety is important! Tell me what happened or I swear I'll-"

"or what, curly bastard? I'd like to see you try!" Zoro cut him short, his expression hardened.

"You asked for it, moss head!" The blonde threw his cigarette and lunged forward with a kick.

Then there they were again, trying to beat the crap out of each other in blurs of black and silver, whipping legs, and the clacking of solid metals. At one point, the green head was at a disadvantage of stumbling upon an unsteady ground and unable to block a powerful kick sent his way. He crashed a few metres away onto a tree and let out a pained grunt. The cook was taken by surprise. The kick he just gave him was usually not a problem for Zoro to block with his swords. He took a hesitant step forward and noticed the green haired man had hurt his right shoulder or even his other body parts which impaired his defence and failed to block an attack. The man couldn't hide his slight winching or sharp breaths every time he had to move certain parts of his body in order to dodge or attack. The blond had suspicions that the shoulder was not the only wounded part.

"Oi, are you okay?" Asked the cook.

"I'm fine." The swordsman insisted, he stopped and leaned down to retrieve his swords from the ground and sheathed them carefully.

"You hurt your shoulder. When did that happen?"

"It's when we fought off the marines. I was distracted and got hit."

"Lies. It was over two weeks ago. You're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything, curly brow! Mind your own businesses."The stubborn marimo turned his back on the cook and got ready to leave but Sanji was faster. He tackled the green head and sent him stumbling forward. The swordsman cursed when he was forced to break the fall with both arms, sending a jolting pain to his right shoulder. The blonde took the opportunity to turn him around and lifted his shirt to reveal his crew mate's torso full of bruises that were inflicted by blunt weapon, some of them looked quite severe but the skin was just starting to change into dark purple colour.

"Holy shit! What the hell was this?"

"Get off!" Zoro barked and pushed the cook away. He stumbled further from the cook while pulling his shirt back down, nearly ripping the fabric in the process, and then looked away. The cook stayed quiet for some time before he spoke again.

"Sit by the fire. I'll get Chopper's ointment and bandage the wounds." He was quite surprised seeing the swordsman did just that after a few moments of hesitation. He supposed Zoro wasn't as angry as he had thought he would. The blonde took a small jar half filled with pale greenish substance and a few rolls of white bandages from Chopper's backpack then took a seat in front of the swordsman.

"Your shirt. Take it off." He told the green head who quickly obliged. It wasn't seldom that the straw hats had to treat each other's wounds after a battle when Chopper was preoccupied with other crew member with more severe or life threatening injuries. And when Sanji and Zoro had to, they usually did it efficiently and quietly, since talking would be more than likely ended on unnecessary fight. It wouldn't be a problem for the cook and it never caused any reactions besides a scowl and a few minor curses while fixing Zoro but after the 'incident' last night, sitting before the swordsman made him constantly shifted his sitting position since he kept thinking that they were sitting too close but then when he scooted away he found that he was too far and had to shift forward again. His heart beat faster if Zoro leaned in a bit too close and his nervous fingers would pressed too hard on Zoro's wound and he would complain and made the cook's frown deeper. The thought that his fingertips were touching the swordsman only distracted him further but finally, after a good number of curses he finished and quickly wrapped the wounds with the bandages.

"There, it's done. Since I treated you, I think I have the right to know how you got them in the first place." The cook scooted and lounged beside the green head. He had put a cigarette on his lips and lit it in a lazy, elegant movements of his hand.

"You--!"

"Well?"

"I'm not obliged to tell you a damn thing, cook!"

"I didn't have to help you with your wounds either, but I just did."

"What, now I owe you an explanation? I didn't remember asking any of your favour so it didn't count."

"That's not the point."

"So what? What is the point?"

"We are nakama. We trust and help each other even when you don't want to be helped." That was what Luffy would say to the crew and without realising it, they were all becoming just like their young captain who they loved and adored more than anything.

The cook's words struck Zoro like lightning and he felt a sudden pang of guilt on his chest. As much as he hated to admit it, he had the strong urge to just spill everything that had been haunting him since yesterday. Things, though, always easier said than done.

The cook let the silence sunk in until the swordsman was ready to talk. He just focused on the nicotine that travelled in and out of his lungs with each breath he took and enjoyed the warmth given by the fire near his feet. He noted from the corner of his eyes that the green head was having a hard time battling with his inner thoughts. He was slouching, but his shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched tightly. He ran his hand through his short cropped hair a few times in nervous gestures.

"I—I didn't-I can't remember how or when I got these bruises. I couldn't even—I couldn't recall how I ended up waking in the middle of the woods instead of here. I just--I kept walking in the dark until I saw the fire light from our camp." The swordsman started. He fixed his eyes intensely on the flickering fire as if it would suddenly died or disappear if he dared to glance away.

"I don't know what's happening to me."

to be continued...

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review please? :)


	6. Chapter 6

Here's the new chapter. Hope you all enjoy! :)

Thanks for those who reviewed, you made me so happy!

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**Chapter 6**

"The first thought that came to my head was that we're attacked and somehow I ended up unconscious in the woods during the battle. That explained the wounds. I pushed aside the fact that I couldn't remember anything about a battle. I needed to make sure everyone was alright. I have to find out what had happened. But it was very dark and it took me hours to finally found my way back. The camp was empty but showed no signs of a fight had occurred here. Things were still where we had left them and you were even sleeping. Then another thought told me that probably you guys noticed my odd absence and went searching for me in the woods. Nami must've told you to stay in case I go back here before them." The swordsman said.

"Then I realised that you would instantly bombard me with questions. Things I surely couldn't answer. I couldn't just say the truth and I was too confused since the only thing that may have explained my wounds was proven wrong, I was left with nothing. So I sat down and tried to clear my mind. I tried to remember, ...but found that I couldn't. Everything is a confusing mass of blacks and greys that I couldn't make a sense out of. I thought--I heard ...sounds, but couldn't make out what they were or decide whether it was real or just my imaginations." He paused for a moment. His scowl deepened and he ground his teeth angrily as if the flickering yellow fire had told him something to say and he hated it. But he continued anyway.

"I don't even know whether I could still trust my sanity or not.... Everything isn't making any fucking sense any more."

Sanji let the swordsman talked and only nodded occasionally between pauses to let him knew he was listening and encouraged the green head to go on with the story. Majority of the time, he was staring at the starless pitch black sky and the silhouette of trees or the fire and the lazy patterns that the white smoke from his cigarette created as it wafted above his head and later disappeared in the cold air, anything besides the green haired man sitting next to him. He only watched his frame from the corner of his eyes, not wanting to put unwanted pressures to the man while he spoke. He didn't need to look at him in the eyes to know what the swordsman was feeling at the moment. He too would be scared to death, having to wake up lost in the dark and beaten up without knowing how or when that had happened to him or what fate had befallen his crew. Without any clues to know the truth or the proof that he was still sane.

Zoro turned to Sanji's relaxed form beside him and searched for his eyes, but the cook didn't look back. "I knew something's wrong when you said you didn't know they're gone. But there were still some possibilities. Probably Nami made them to leave in a hurry to get something from the Sunny and didn't have time to tell you so she left her den den mushi here to inform you from the ship. Or she simply didn't think telling you was necessary since they were going to be back soon. There are nothing we know yet that tells us for sure it's an attack, but-"

"We couldn't ignore the fact that they just left without a word," The blonde finished for him. "...or the wounds." Sanji glanced at Zoro's bandaged torso before shifted his gaze to meet the swordsman's eyes. The green head quickly averted his eyes and looked away as if the cook's gaze burned him like hot coal.

"We still have some time before dawn. I'll take a watch and see if I can find anything useful around here." Said the blond. He got up and stomped the remains of his cigarette that he threw to the ground and crouched at where Usopp left his big backpack, looking for a flash light of some sort. Usopp always had handy tools with him that the crew could benefit from, although more than half the time Sanji wasn't sure what the stuff was called (or whether they even had names) or whether they were made to fulfil any function at all. Finally he found a small shell-like tool that Usopp had once showed him as a 'torch' (the cook thought Usopp called it light dial and he bartered some rubber bands for it from a man in Skypiea). He fumbled with the thing for a moment, searching for some kind of switch while hoping that it was still usable. He grinned slightly when the light dial was working as it let out a bright yellow light from its opening.

The green head didn't reply but took the hint. That was Sanji's way of telling him to rest without making it looked like he cared. That was what Zoro would do too if he was in the blond's shoes. That was their way of taking care each other. The swordsman bent over to take off his heavy boots, grimacing slightly at the blunt pain on his shoulder every time he moved it. He shifted slightly to get a comfortable position, folded his shirt to be used as a pillow, threw a blanket over him and laid on his back. He dozed off seconds later.

"What a cave man..." The blond cook looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes seeing the swordsman slept easily without the need of a decent mattress a normal person would need before they could go to sleep on a solid ground. But at least he put a blanket on this time, even though it was clear he didn't spare enough time to pull it over the entire lower half of his body. Part of his leg was still open to the cold air.

The blonde wondered if the swordsman's inhuman physical endurance would prevent him from catching cold when he slept shirtless on wet grass in such cold weather. Sure the heat from the fire helped, but still...

_Nah, the marimo'll be alright_. He told himself.

Nonetheless, he still felt the urge to move him on a more appropriate bedding and a better blanket. He didn't look comfortable after all. The cook just stood and stared at his green haired nakama for a few moments, debating whether he should move him or not. It would be very awkward if Zoro woke up while he brought him to an empty mattress.

_The marimo would think I'm weird_. Thought the cook. _And then he would_ _put his guard on toward me and eventually notices there's something different._

His pulse picked up a few paces thinking the possibilities. He didn't dare to imagine how Zoro would react if he knew. But the swordsman didn't seem to mind kissing Sunny last night, so it shouldn't be that bad if he found out that Sanji had some kind of ...feeling toward him, right? Wait, he shouldn't even think about it! Of course he wouldn't let that happen! He couldn't let the marimo know! The idea of carrying the marimo on his arms was pretty tempting of course, but the risk was too great. And so he settled to wake the swordsman instead.

"Oi, marimo" The cook nudged his sides, careful not to touch the wounds. "move. You're on my way."

The green head cracked his eyes open and frown. He levered his body up slightly with one arm and growled. "The hell, crap cook? You've got a lot of space to move around!"

"You're still intruding my space. I need a room to cook." The blond pointed out.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that good of an excuse since there was nothing preventing him from using any other sides of the fire besides the one occupied by the first mate. Not to mention the fact that he used cooking as the main reason. Who used the whole sides of a fire to cook anyway? And the green head wasn't that close to the fire to prevent him from cooking in the same side if he really didn't have any other choices. He knew the swordsman was thinking the same thing as he glanced at the rather wide space around them and sent a glare at the cook.

"Fuck off, curly brow! There's plenty of room over there!" He said gruffly, certain that the cook was doing it deliberately to annoy him, and turned on his left sides, giving his back to the cook. He was in no mood to deal with the blonde's provocation. But the cook apparently thought otherwise.

"I said move, moss head." Sanji said flatly but having no reaction from the other man, he extended his feet and kicked his back slightly. This move did provoke the green head a bit.

"the hell is _your_ problem, kuso cook?!" He barked angrily.

"I wasted time and energy fixing you and you just go ruining it on wet grass. Why can't you sleep on a mattress like a normal patient, huh, marimo?" The cook snarled. He decided it won't do if he used the 'cooking space' as an excuse to get his point across that thick skull.

The swordsman was tired, cold and was on the verge of killing something. But if the cook was in the mood to get killed, he'll get it! A thin dark grin slowly grew on the green head's face. "Because I can." He said mockingly. A slight taunt was all it took to get the hot tempered blond plunged head first into a fight. But unfortunately for him, the cook didn't take the bait.

"Yeah, whatever. Go drown yourself if you like, I'm totally fine with that." The blonde nonchalantly said. "I just concern that you would only slow me down tomorrow."

"Why, you--!"

"And I'm not saving your ass next time." The cook added as he turned on his heels and began walking away.

"I don't need saving from anyone, bastard! Especially from you!" The swordsman bellowed at the leaving blonde.

The cook only waved dismissively as he trotted toward the area of the girls' tent with, leaving the irritated swordsman to pout alone. The green head cursed under his breath and glanced at Usopp's empty mattress a few feet away. It looked warm, dry and comfy but he was too stubborn and ended up making several attempts to fall back to sleep on the same patch of grass without a success. Now that someone had pointed out a comparison, the grass surface he'd occupied suddenly seemed too wet and uneven. It's spiky edges seemed very intended on poking his nape and his ears, making him suspected they had conspired against him.

"Crappy dartboard brow..." He swore grudgingly as he finally picked himself up and got to the mattress.

* * *

Sanji stood inside the camp that was lit by the light dial, and looked around searching for the mini den den mushi Nami had brought along with her. He studied Nami's backpack beside her bed mattress, and after a long mental debate, he crouched over it while muttering an apology to his orange goddess. A gentleman like him shouldn't look inside a lady's private belongings, but he was sure Nami would understand since it was an emergency. He soon found what he was looking for inside one of the side pockets. So Nami did leave it here, but it didn't look like she left it there to be found later by him. It didn't look like she was planning to leave at all. He tried to contact the den den mushi on the Sunny several times, but there was no reply. Nobody's there. With a sigh, the blond glanced around the tent some more but found nothing that could help him with the crew's whereabouts. He turned to leave and stopped on his track when he heard splashing noise from outside. It couldn't possibly be the idiot moss head, could it? Even he wasn't stupid enough to take a swim in the cold weather, right? Wait, actually he was!

The blond rushed outside and neared the lake. He searched for any sign of the green head, thankful that the dawn had been nearing the day and helped his vision a little bit. A voice inside him had him thinking that this probably had something to do with the things he said to the marimo before he left him but it was quickly waved off. He called out the green haired man and cursed when the man didn't appear to the surface then called him out again.

_Oh for fuck's sake...._ The cook paced anxiously on the lake's shore, seriously beginning to worry that whatever had happened to the swordsman, it had made him lost his mind too.

He decided he had waited long enough and jumped in. The water was dark and cold and he tried to concentrate on swimming, ignoring his fear that he couldn't see anything in there or had no idea of where he was going and that he might be too late when he managed to find him.

He had lost the track of time when he felt something against his side and quickly grabbed the limp body and then pulled it to the shore. The swordsman was cold and wasn't breathing. It was such an odd experience having a dejavu in less than a day. The cook instantly administered CPR on the green head, refusing the thought that it was probably too late. The total silence of his surroundings was in contrast with the drumming thumps of his heart beat and harsh breaths. All seemed to happen too fast and sudden that he wasn't ready to accept other possibilities.

Zoro wasn't breathing. It can't be happening. He pounded his diaphragm and gave a mouthful of air to the lungs.

The blond felt his body went numb. The healthy tanned skin had turned pale bluish. The man wasn't breathing. He pounded harder and forced another mouthful of air through the mouth that had lost its warmth.

"Goddamnit. _Breath_, you bastard!!"

Their lips connected again and his heart almost jumped out of his chest when he felt a cold tongue in his mouth and a hand holding his nape in place. His mind went blank for a few second before he broke away. He's been tricked! The fear and despair in his chest had instantly turned into pure wrath.

"You've been craving for it since last night, haven't you?" A playful grin splayed on the green haired swordsman's face.

The cook opened his mouth, ready to explode and gave the man a piece of his mind for playing a cruel joke on his nakama and made him worried like hell. Sanji wasn't sure where to begin and showed the green head how terrible he had made him felt and it made him looked like a stunned fish. Another factor was that he had never thought Zoro was capable of such bad joke. The man could be a jerk in a lot of aspects (You could count on Sanji on that), but this was simply not one of them. If anything, the cook would be more likely to be caught doing it before the swordsman did.

"What? I thought you missed me." Zoro sat up and commented on the odd look the cook gave him.

Wait…... now the green head _remembered_ about last night all of a sudden? Something very odd was going on here.

To be continued...

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Anyone think this made sense? The storyline is a little bit complicated but I hope this chapter didn't add more confusions. More will be revealed in the next update, of course. Thanks for staying tuned! :)


	7. Chapter 7

Hi! Thanks for all the reviews and please enjoy the new chapter!

(I'm not in the mood of longer author note, my tooth is killing me! T_T)

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**Chapter 7**

The green haired swordsman just shrugged and then stood up to leave the wide eyed blonde who was still staring at him in shock. He went toward the fire and sat on a rock nearby, looking down at the ruined bandages on his body with an annoyed expression before peeling them off one by one. He grimaced and cursed under his breath when he had to bend to take off his dripping black pants, leaving only his dark boxers on. The man seemed to consider taking it off too, but he glanced thoughtfully at the cook's direction and decided to keep it there.

"It's almost morning, cook. Don't you have to _cook_ something for breakfast?" The green head looked over at the silent cook who was still hanging around by the lake's shore like he still couldn't quite accept the fact that the swordsman was breathing and was talking to him now. Finally the blonde man raised from his knees and took a step forward, his confused, shocked expression had turned into a hard glare.

"You _fucking son of a bitch_!! You think it's funny?! What in the hell is _wrong_ with you?"

"Relax, blondie. Why are you so damn serious?" The swordsman said while idly poking the firewood with a stick. He didn't even bother to look up at the blonde.

"Why _so serious_?! What about you're almost _convinced _me that you're death just now?"

It managed to gain some attention from the green head. He paused and looked at the raging cook from head to toe as if he just noticed the cook's present for the first time. "You like me or something?"

"Wh-What?!" Sanji was taken aback by the comment and turned bright red despite himself.

"just kidding.... hey, are you blushing?"

"Shut up, baka moss head!! Don't change the damn subject!" The comment only made the cook burned redder which Sanji tried to hide with a deep scowl.

"Fine. I'll stop talking." The swordsman retorted and shrugged, resuming his activity of poking and slightly upsetting the fire camp. The cook blinked at the reaction. The submissive gesture was probably only to irritate him further, and it worked. The thought of giving the arrogant swordsman some hard kicks to the head was very tempting, if only a tiny voice inside his head stopped saying that Zoro wouldn't normally say or did all that. He knew the man for too long for not noticing the difference in character. For one, the green head had never took a matter of life or death so lightly, let alone pulling a joke about it for one of his crew mate to worry or faked innocence after committing the act. It was more than once the crew caught Zoro with injuries more serious than he had admitted. At first, the cook thought it was because it stung his stupid macho pride, which was true in a way, but later he found out the marimo didn't want the crew to worry more.

Sanj's wrath had died down into mild annoyance as some of his anger had evaporated somewhere along the way while he pondered about the green head's odd behaviours. Confusion and concern had him lost interest in arguing with the swordsman. He wondered if it had connections with the mysterious wounds Zoro had obtained. He made a mental note to look through his wounds further later, there might be a suspicious injury he hadn't notice before.

The cook looked up and saw the sun had risen higher and shone through the trees. The thin fog began to disappear and the dew droplets on the grass were twinkling against the sunlight. They would need to eat something before starting their search throughout the woods. They had ran out of any edible supplies beside some meat and berries Sanji had managed to hide from Luffy after dinner. So he took the leftovers and divided it in two clean plates then shove one of them to Zoro's hands.

"We'll go after breakfast." said the blonde.

The swordsman took it with a slight nod and watched the cook took a seat across from him. They ate their breakfast in silence.

"She left it here and I tried to call the Sunny several times but no one answered." Sanji took out the mini den den mushi from his jacket pocket and showed it to the swordsman. "It doesn't look like she meant to leave it at all. It was still inside her backpack when I found it."

"We can start searching the areas close by, they couldn't be that far from here." Said the green head.

"Let's do something with that first." The blonde nodded toward the wounds on Zoro. "It wouldn't help keeping it untreated."

He took the balm and bandages, didn't bother to wait for a respond, and kneeled before the green head. By concentrating only on the wounds, he worked faster and more efficiently but Zoro seemed to determine in ruining the cook's defence by staring directly at the blonde and made him lost concentration.

"What!" Sanji snapped and glared at the marimo.

"Nothing... What, I'm not allowed to look? You can look at me as much as you like." The green head waved his hand in front of his bare torso and made Sanji's eyes unconsciously swept through his bronzed sculpted chest down to his boxer's waist band, that was rather too low in Sanji's opinion since he could see the hipbones and a glimpse of dark green hair where it began to grow down, before the cook realised what he was doing and quickly averted his gaze. Much to the cook's dismay, the swordsman wasn't quite finished yet embarrassing him.

"Do you like it?" He smirked widely that tempted Sanji to put his sole through that smug face. If only he wasn't injured the cook would do it without a second thought. Besides, he didn't want to spend more time patching the marimo's head.

"You stupid or something? I'm not gay, especially towards you, moss head." The cook glowered at Zoro.

"So it wouldn't affect you at all if I do this?" The green haired swordsman grabbed his shoulders and leaned in to run his warm tongue along the cook's jawline that sent shivers down his spine. The swordsman's touch was gone as suddenly as it came and Sanji regretted its leave for a split second before he snapped out of his trance and backed away.

"What the fuck, baka marimo?!" He swiped his sleeve harshly against the molested area. The cook was sure his face was redder than the most ripe tomato and the thought made him blushed even more. Poor cook. He thought he couldn't be more embarrassed in his entire life but unfortunately he was wrong. Seeing that the marimo was staring at him, he followed the gaze in reflex to find something was straining hard against his pants that suddenly grew too tight on the front.

_Oh shit._

"Well damn," Zoro chuckled in slight amusement.

"_Shut _the_ fuck up_, moss brain!!!" If there was a hole nearby, Sanji would've preferred to jump in and buried himself alive rather than having to endure such humiliation.

* * *

The two straw hats searched with only a brief rest the whole afternoon around the areas surrounding the lake. They walked in silence, or rather, the cook was the one determined to keep it that way and ignored anything the green head was saying to him. Somehow the blonde managed to finish bandaging Zoro without killing him after the little incident and barked at him to dress properly. Then they instantly started the search in the woods which unfortunately, gave them no result. They stopped to pick berries from the vegetation where Zoro and Chopper had found the day before and had a light lunch before continuing the search toward where the Thousand Sunny was anchored. Sanji had tried to contact the ship again with the mini den den mushi in vain and suggested that they might find some clues on the Sunny. The problem was they didn't know the exact location of their ship since Usopp and Franky moved it after they went off. The cook remembered Nami told him it was moved to a small cove near their first anchored position so it shouldn't be so hard to find.

Starting from Sunny's first location before it was moved, they turned to the west while keeping the seashore in sight as guideline. The cove should be not so far away, either to the east or west. It turned out that the cove was east from their first starting point and by the time they spotted their happy jolly roger, the sun had begun setting out in the horizon. It was almost dark when they climbed aboard the ship and light the lanterns. As expected, the ship was empty. Sanji gave the marimo another lantern and they began to look throughout the Sunny for anything out of ordinary but both men found none and went back to the galley empty handed.

The cook peeked inside the pantry and saw a sack of potatoes on the corner. Usopp must have thought it's too heavy to be carried in his backpack earlier. He opened the fridge and found a few carrots and onion that already a little dry. At least he could make them simple potato soup for dinner. He took out some seasoning ingredients and several basic cooking utensils that he always carried around in his backpack together with his other personal belongings when they were camping outside the Sunny. A good cook would never journey without carrying his essential cooking gears.

The swordsman put his backpack on the floor and sat on one end of the table, watching the blonde walked about the kitchen counter, chopping or stirring the boiling pan. Sanji grumbled something about lazy plant head bastard that couldn't make himself useful in the kitchen but other than that, he let Zoro be. He wasn't in the mood to start arguing over something small when he was too preoccupied with the thought of the other crew members. Besides, there weren't much to do in there.

The marimo only got up from his chair once to get a glass of water from the tub. The blonde thought it was unusual since the first thing Zoro would touch was usually a bottle of booze and there were still two bottles left on the cupboard. The marimo would not drink anything else unless Sanji got on his way or the ship was out of alcohol. Perhaps he wasn't felt like starting an argument with the blonde, but it was just unlike Zoro not to try his luck when there's booze in sight. A lot of time he did try it and more than once Sanji let him slip away with his precious alcohol. The cook also noticed the swordsman's lack of hot tempered attitude and curses he tended to do a lot more when injured. He decided to find out just what's up with the marimo later after dinner. That was, until he saw Zoro threw his most precious treasures, his three swords, on the floor while muttering something about them kept getting on his way. The swordsman would definitely kill anyone dared mistreating his swords and seeing he carelessly threw the swords himself as if they were no more than a piece of junk peaked Sanji's suspicions.

"Oi, marimo. Do you remember seeing or hearing anything last night?"

"Heard what?"

"Anything at all."

"Nope, nothing. We went to sleep not long after you did."

"We? You mean, you and Sunny?" Sanji's question was replied with a nod. _Bingo._ So he _did_ remember kissing Sunny. At first he denied it, making the blonde looked like a nuts and then the next time he easily admit it? Just what the hell was that? Sanji decided to try another question, all the while feigning innocence as if he forgot he had asked him before.

"What about your injuries? How did you get it?"

"This? That damn twin of yours attacked me."

"What? You mean Sunny?"

"Yeah. Haven't I told you? We were fighting over... stuffs."

"Wait a minute, why did you say you didn't remember anything before?"

"Oh, I did? I must've forgotten then..." The green head cocked an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't lie, bastard. I know you're not him!" Sanji banged his hand loudly on the kitchen counter and he could instantly see the change of expression on the other man's face.

"Who the hell are you?! Where's my crew?" The cook glared down the mysterious green haired man, his voice thick with venom.

To be continued...

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Small part of the mystery began to unfold... Stay tuned for more and please review. :)


	8. Chapter 8

Yes! Since you guys were very generous and supportive with this fic, I managed to finish the new chapter for your entertainment. Thanks a lot for reviewing, guys and please enjoy the little update!

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**Chapter 8**

"Who else could I be, stupid cook? I'm Zoro." The swordsman chuckled, one corner of his mouth curved into a half grin.

"No, you're not. He would never do that to them!" The cook nodded his head towards the katanas on the floor. "What did you do to him?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, cook. I'm _him_."

"We'll see about that." Sanji walked closer and picked all three swords from the floor.

"Name them." He demanded.

"What?" The green head scoffed at the odd request.

"If you _were_ Zoro, you would know it without even looking. What do you call this one?" Sanji held out the katana with the shining black sheath in his grip.

"No idea? What about this one?" He held out another katana and unsheathed it from its white sheath then swung it slightly in front of the silent swordsman.

"Still no idea huh? Well, I'll give you a hint; if you don't tell me where my friends _are_ right now, I'm gonna _chop_ your head off." Sanji gripped Wadou tightly and put the tip of the sharp blade on the green haired man's throat.

"I don't think you want to do that." The man said calmly, he didn't wince even the slightest from the pressure on his throat.

"Really? What made you _so_ sure, bastard?" The blonde narrowed his eyes dangerously and added more pressure to the tip of the sword, emphasising that he wasn't just throwing an empty threat.

"Because that would kill _him_ instead of me." The thin wicked smirk faltered the blonde a bit and he hurriedly pulled back the swords when he saw a thin trail of blood made its way down Zoro's throat. As the cook had suspected, it was Zoro's body he was controlling.

"Damn it! What are you?!"

"Me? I don't think you would believe me if I tell you."

"Try me, bastard."

"Alright, I'm Velturus, god of the waters in this island." He said in a rather bored tone.

Sanji blinked. "What?"

"See, I told you." He lifted his hand in defeat as if he had gone through similar situations for many times and had grown tired of it.

"Even if it's true, why would I need to believe it?"

"Well, you don't need to. It doesn't matter. What matters is your friends who are still out there somewhere."

"What did you do to them?!"

"Relax, blondie. They're fine and you would be able to see them again soon if you do what I ask you to do."

"...What would that be?"

"It's simple, really. Confess your love to your green haired friend here and earn his love in return. Once you succeed, I will free your other friends immediately. See? Simple and easy."

"Just what kind of request is that?! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Makes a lot of sense to me. You don't have other choices, you know. They are under my spell and only me can undone it."

"You've gone so far and do all this just to ask me that? How do I know it's not your other trick?"

"I can promise you this is no trick, my blonde friend. You see, we are on the spring matchmaking contest and I'm _very_ determined to defeat that cunning sister of mine. I could tell she cheated more than twice to maintain her title every year!"

"...m-matchmaking contest?"

"I know what you're thinking. But hey, mortals are not the only race who need recreational sport once in a while, don't you agree?"

"You're crazy! You kidnapped my crew just for this bullshit? I don't even know why I'm listening to this nonsense."

"Well, I don't expect you to understand either. I'll just remind you that your friends depend on you. Now, are you in?"

"It's crazy! Why me? Why him? We're both males!"

"and they accuse Gods as a bunch of ancient and conservative deities..." The green head rolled his eyes. "It doesn't have to be male and female, dummy. Besides, you do have a thing for him don't you?" He winked at the blonde and made his face burned up.

"Okay, one more thing; you can't tell him about our deal. See you soon, blondie!"

"Wha-hey, wait! I haven't even said I'd do it!" Sanji tried to protest but knew that it was too late seeing the swordsman's upper body had already slumped forward and fell on the table before him with a loud thud. Zoro wasn't going to be very happy when he woke up.

"...Fuck." The blonde ran his hand through his banks and pulled it roughly in frustration. How in the world could he ever get Zoro to like him? That sounded even more impossible than defeating a god and taught him some lessons for messing with the cook.

* * *

The swordsman woke up with a painful grunt. He couldn't remember falling asleep against a cold, hard surface or knocking his head hard against it, yet his head throbbed and his neck felt like it's going to break. He grumbled and lifted his head to find that he was sleeping inside a very familiar wooden room with a very familiar kitchen. It was the Thousand Sunny's galley. Of how he ended up waking in a place more than 10 kilo meters away from where he had last slept, he had no idea. He began to look around the galley as the feeling of cold dull fear began to crawl back into surface. Had he been blacking out again? He exhaled a somewhat relieved breath when he saw a pan was still boiling hot on the stove as well as several used cooking utensils that told him the cook was there recently. At least someone was with him and probably could tell him what had happened.

The green head massaged his nape gingerly, realising he was tired and thirsty like he had been walking a very long distance. Eyeing a bottle of alcohol with no prissy cook around, he quickly got up and drank half of it in one go. It helped dulling the headache and the fear a bit. He'd been in this shitty situation without any booze to ease his mind until the crappy cook confronted him. Though he couldn't deny telling the dart brow might have lifted some of the burden. Okay, maybe the fact that it was the cook helped a lot, and maybe he wouldn't feel as relieved if he talked to someone else, say Chopper or Robin. With Sanji he felt he didn't necessarily need to hide some things in order not to make him worried about things more. Probably it had a lot to do with the cook's strength and his head strong confidences that ensured Zoro he could count on him when things got though and the burden of having to be the strongest was not his alone.

The swordsman had gulped down the remaining alcohol in his grip when he noticed it was dark outside from the portholes. Either the sun hadn't risen yet or it had set a few hours ago while he was 'sleeping', he tended to go with the latter though, since the journey from the lake to the Sunny took at least four hours. The angry noises from the pan stole his attention for a moment. He'd better turn the fire off if he didn't want to deal with cranky-cook mode of Sanji over a burned food. Then he walked out of the galley, to find the cook.

Outside, under the light of pale moon, stood the blonde cook, smoking like a chimney. He was leaning against the ship's railing on the lawn deck, his back to the swordsman. He seemed unaware until the green head stood beside him.

"Oh, you're up." the blonde glanced and mumbled absent mindedly.

Zoro grunted a 'hn' then cleared his throat and spoke again. "Have we... found anything yet? About them, I mean."

"Uh, no, not really." came the cook's reply. They stood still, letting the silence sink in between them as both boys were struggling to decide what to say next. The swordsman eyed the blonde from the corner of his eyes and noticed that something was stressing the man judging from his tense shoulders and the way he kept moving the cigarette between his lips in repeated anxious manner. It could be translated into fidgeting on Chopper or kept touching his nose and sweating on Usopp when they're nervous. Had something bad happened?

"Why are we here, cook?" Zoro tried to sound casual, but he couldn't hide his annoyance having to ask such question in his tone.

The cook turned his head and looked at the green head for a moment, as if he was just being asked to eat his pants before turning away again and took a long drag from his cigarette. The green head looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. It was really frustrating having to depend on someone to fill in the blank of things you've missed out. It was like loosing one part of your body that made you lost certain abilities normal people could easily do. You could no longer depend on yourself. And of all people, Zoro had to depend on the cook!

The blonde blew out a long trail of smoke from his mouth before speaking. "We're searching for clues and I thought we could find something here."

The cook seemed like he wasn't going to say more about today, so the swordsman kept his intention to find out whether he had been having a black out for later and only nodded. In truth, he didn't really want to know either, at least for now.

"So... what's bothering you?" The swordsman hesitated for awhile before he asked the blonde again. It wasn't because he grew fond of the cook or anything, it was just plain curiosity.

"Huh? Uh... I-um, it's nothing. I'm just... thinking." The blonde cook looked startled by the question although Zoro wasn't sure why he should, his blue eye didn't really look at him. The green head nodded a little and frowned. Sanji wasn't going to speak up. Probably it's none of his business and Zoro had no right to feel annoyed if he wasn't going to tell him anything. Maybe their relationship was no more than crew mates sailing on the same boat to the cook or whatever which might be true since they didn't share that kind of bond friends usually did. All they did was argue when they weren't too busy trying to chop each other's head. Zoro wasn't even sure it even fell into the category of a relationship so what was he so upset about?

"... okay, I'm going to bed." Seeing that it was pointless to try to get the cook to spill, Zoro decided to call it a day. He was sleepy, tired, and desperately needed a shower. The cook didn't seem to hear it and continued staring intently at the black water below.

Yawning, Zoro made his way to the galley to get his backpack, got a clean shirt, a pair of boxers and pants from it before leaving his swords and the bag in the boy's cabin then headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. He took off his dirty clothes and bandages and stepped in the shower and thankful that Franky had installed a heater on the Sunny's great shower system. The warmth and the pressure of the water was just perfect for a tired body. On his way back to the cabin, he could still spotted a trail of smoke coming from the cook who hadn't moved from his spot. He supposed the cook was really worried about their crew mates and his 'condition' made the situation even worse. The swordsman's brows furrowed deeply at the thought. He himself got _a lot_ to worry about. His friends' disappearance without a single trace wasn't making much sense and there were voices inside his head that kept haunting him with ideas that his condition had something to do with them, or that he might be the one who caused the whole incident. But it wouldn't help the situation to keep this frame of thought in mind, Zoro knew. The only thing he and Sanji could do was to keep a positive and rational mind in order to concentrate fully on the task, be depressed or to think of irrelevant matters was the last thing either of them needed.

Zoro walked in the boy's cabin which was lit by a single lantern hanged in the corner and made his way to his hammock. His boots felt heavy and his shoulders hung low no matter how much he told himself to not over thinking stuffs.

"Just shut up, damn it!" Finally he growled to himself. He threw his ass on the hammock then took off his boots and dropped them none to gently on the wooden floorboards that creaked in protest. Then he got on his back and tried to get to sleep.

"Lousy day, huh?" A voice was heard from Usopp's hammock above him.

"Hn," He grunted absent mindedly before his brain registered what was going on. The next second he tried to get up in such a rush that he stumbled out face first of the hammock with a loud thud and a curse. He put the pain aside and rolled to grab one of his katanas, unsheathed it and poised it towards the intruder all in one fluid movements that would unmistakably make the three younger straw hats' eyes gleamed with mouths gaping in total awe.

"Impressive reflex, although the first part must've been unintentional... Was it?" The strange person clapped heartily before he asked the question and cocked his head in genuine curiosity. He was sitting cross legged on the hammock and his hand touched his chin as if he was thinking over the hardest riddle to solve. The boy was probably about a year younger than Zoro or Sanji although his skinny frame made him looked even younger and he wore a strange cyan short robe that was cut just above his knees. There was an ornamental garland on his head but the most striking feature was his shoulder length hair since the colour kept morphing from silver white to deep dark blue and sometimes sparkling against the lantern light every time he moved his head. It also created the illusion of slow, rhythmical movement as of ocean waves.

"You have some guts to sneak into a pirate ship, brat. Who are you?" Zoro pointed Sandai Kitetsu threateningly towards the boy. He had no idea how someone like him (which was quite hard to miss even in the dark) managed to go inside their cabin without any of Zoro or the cook noticing.

"Actually, Zoro, we've met before although we haven't been properly introduced." The boy said. "I'm Velturus."

"I don't give a damn, _brat_. What do you want?" It really wasn't surprising some stranger would know each member of the straw hats, their wanted posters were everywhere to see. What surprised Zoro was how the boy strolled in the Sunny and spoke like he owned the entire ship in front of the green head. Just who did he think he was?

"Well, my grumpy green haired friend, I came here to offer you a proposal."

to be continued...

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I twisted the plot a little to make things a little bit more complicated. Anyone could guess what the proposal would be?

Thanks and please drop a review :)


	9. Chapter 9

Hi all! Here's the new update. I don't have much to say, so let's just get on with the story, shall we?

Once again, thanks for everyone who read and reviewed this fic, you really are the source of my motivation! And a very special thanks to my awesome beta: Princess Darkcloud!

Please enjoy!

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**Chapter 9**

The sun had risen high in the sky by the time Sanji opened his heavy eyes the next morning. That tended to happen when someone who was stressing himself over too many things all at once while plunging into the pool of self pity of how things seemed too focused on putting him under immense torture. The stars had started to dim in the dark sky and the pale moon had shifted from above the Sunny when the cook decided to go to the cabin. He stopped in his tracks, remembering the boiling pan he had left on the stove, and he tried not to freak out when he imagined what the soup would look like. He rushed to the galley to salvage what was left of his potato soup. He sighed, seeing that the food inside the pan wasn't in anywhere near the horrible condition he had anticipated and was grateful that the swordsman had turned the fire off. After putting it away, he walked to the cabin and literally collapsed into his hammock.

The blonde grumbled over his stiff muscles and cracked his neck with a pop before getting off of the hammock slowly. He thought he heard the marimo wake up and leave the cabin some time ago, and a glance at the swordsman's hammock confirmed it. Thinking about the certain green head made him remember his current dilemma; he groaned frustratedly.

"Damn that freak god, putting me in this mess!" He grumbled. "I didn't even agree to this nonsense! I bet he's laughing at me now..." The cook glared hard at the wooden ceiling as if he was looking at the shitty water god up there. Sanji suspected he had done the same thing many times before just for the sake of amusement.

"Shitty water freak!" The blonde continued on, still sending an angry glare, but then a thought suggested that if he was trying to curse a water god shouldn't he at least direct his wrath in the right direction? Considering he was a water god and all, the cook should be looking towards the ocean, shouldn't he? So he shifted his head down and glared at the floorboards for a few moments before feeling kinda stupid and decided to stop. There must be a way to free his Nakama without him having to comply with some bored God's random will! He must have some weaknesses that Sanji could use to his advantage. If he was a water god on the island, he must have some kind of structure he called home or such somewhere on the island and it was likely located near a water source, for instance, a lake.

_Ha! I'm gonna show you that you messed with the wrong cook!_ Thought Sanji victoriously. Then he went to the bathroom to start the day. He brushed his teeth, took a quick shower, and got dressed. He was ready to walk out of the bathroom when he saw a note next to the mirror. He didn't remember seeing it when he entered and it made his eyes narrowed in suspicion. He took the slightly wet note and read.

'I'll see you at dusk, blondie.'

The cook frowned at the pet name that confirmed who the sender was. _Blondie_. The word itself wasn't really offensive but the mocking tone the god used every time he mentioned it was enough to indicate an insult. The cook decided he liked 'curly-brow' or 'crap cook' better, or even 'skirt slave'. At least Zoro didn't use such a tone when he said it! (And honestly, Sanji was quite amused by the swordsman's much developed skill on creating pet names, considering how he used to be so unimaginative when they first started giving each other names).

_Wait. Focus, Sanji!_

The cook directed his attention to the note with ugly doodle-like writing on it. That damn god couldn't even write. It took a few seconds for the words to sink in (Sanji blamed the hand writing, of course). He couldn't be _serious_. Sanji reread the note. It still said; I'll see you at dusk, blondie. _Dusk_.

Wait, did he mean today's dusk?

He brought the paper closer and glared hard to read it again slowly, wanting to make sure he didn't miss any characters . _I'll see you at dusk_. The note didn't indicate the day, so it was more than likely meant to be the same day as today. He flipped the note and was hoping to find more words on the back, but found none. It meant he'd have to fulfil his end of agreement by dusk, _today_.

"_WHAT?!!!!" _Sanji freaked out. The crazy god expected him to get Zoro to like him in just half a day! He needed a new plan, _really_ _quickly_.

* * *

Zoro had gone to the crow's nest early in the morning. The sky was still dark and slightly foggy when he reached the deck. The cool air made him shiver a little so hurried to his sanctuary at the highest room in the Sunny, surrounding himself with the training weights he had missed since they ported on the island's shore. He began with sit ups and attempted to do some weight lifting, ignoring the dull pain on his chest and shoulder until it became too painful to work out. The burning pain forced him to rest for a while and he laid with his back on the floor in frustration. He didn't want to stop, since the lack of physical activity made him think about the crazy kid's proposition. Well, it was more of a threat actually, since he wasn't given any other choice but to comply.

The boy, that claimed he was a god, told him that he must tell Sanji he liked Sunny if he wanted to see his friends again. It didn't make any sense why he wanted Zoro to pretend to like Sunny, or why Sanji should know that he did. The request was too ridiculous, the boy had to show the green head Luffy's straw hat to prove how serious it was. The swordsman almost lunged with his sword when Velturus waved the straw hat carelessly and then put it on his head while talking about his crew mates being nice little prisoners in his cold prison. Velturus generously filled in most of the blanks that Zoro had been missing out, although his motive was questionable. The part where he said Zoro was a big help in his plan made the green head's blood drain from his face. It confirmed he played a part in putting the others in danger despite he was merely being used as a tool. At that point, Zoro could barely contain his wrath, but somehow he managed to stay still and listen until the end of the conversation. It had a lot to do with the straw hat in the boy's hand, a reminder that the enemy had the Ace card at the moment.

The boy god revealed that Sunny was captured with the other straw hats right after he put up a fight against him while he was using Zoro's body. But he promised to let Sunny back to the ship to make Zoro's mission easier, and then his body morphed into water bubbles that quickly vanished into thin air. Like Sanji, he hadn't been given a second to agree to the deal and he was only given time until dusk, today. It made the green head wide awake after the encounter until several hours later, but when he was too exhausted he fell into a restless sleep.

Zoro pondered the thought of disobeying Ver-Vret- whatever he said his name was (his name was too weird to remember and Zoro personally thought _Brat_ was more suitable for him), but he knew that he had to act carefully. He had a few plans in mind, though he wasn't really sure how to proceed without putting the others in more danger. He stood up and went to the long circular sofa by the window, scanning the area bellow to check for the blonde chef but saw no one. The green head leaned back against the wooden wall and waited. He would need to wait for Sunny in order for his plan to work. And if the brat was a god, which Zoro highly doubted, but he still couldn't ignore his logia type devil fruit ability, he had to tread carefully. He must play the part as if he was doing as he was told while setting his plan in motion. Sounded like a perfect plan, despite how much he didn't fancy the idea of pretending to obey the brat.

For one, Zoro wasn't a submissive type of person, especially when the person who bossed him around was a teenage weirdo with some devil fruit ability who thought the green head would just do whatever he wanted because he _thought_ he was a god, aside from an orange haired money loving bitch that was. And secondly, he had no intention on having any form of relationships with the aho-cook double beside nakama. That was just not gonna happen as long as he still drew breaths!

The swordsman tried to figure out why it was important to let Sanji knew about him and Sunny. That part was just unreasonable and quite suspicious, if you asked Zoro. What was that brat had in mind, Zoro wondered. Without knowing exactly why, his mind suddenly decided to display a mental image of a certain blonde giving him mouth-to-mouth and it made his face flush red in an instant.

_Shit! Why did I suddenly think that?!_

He pushed his back harder against the wall as if trying to escape an imaginary lips from touching his. His veins pulsed faster and he had to wonder why the image brought such reactions to his body. At least there was no one around to see him in that embarrassing state. Roronoa Zoro, blushing over a memory of another man's mouth on his!

"Oi," A voice almost made him jumped in surprise. Good thing he didn't or the crap cook would think he was getting jumpy and would wonder why.

_Oh great, he just had to show up right now._

"I made lunch." Said the blonde. The swordsman tried not to make any eye contact and awkwardly pretended he was searching for his shirt, although he already knew exactly he had left it near the dumbbells on the floor. The blonde didn't pay much attention and quickly turned for the trap door as soon as the green head 'found' his shirt and he began to climb down the mast. Zoro exhaled a small relieved breath and quickly put on his shirt and haramaki then attached his three katanas to it before following after the blonde to the galley bellow.

The blonde had his back on him when he entered the galley and took a seat on the table. Zoro watched the cook as he poured a hot, soupy substance into two bowl, walked over to the table and gave the swordsman, who sat across from him, one of the bowls and put the other on the table in front of him and sat down. Zoro looked at the same potato soup from last night but he wasn't about to complain.

"I think we better start our search right after this. I'm thinking to go back to the lake, in case we're missing out something." Sanji spoke up.

"Yeah, I think we should." Zoro agreed quickly although he didn't know why Sanji suggested it. They had been looking around the lake area for clues yesterday and found nothing (at least, that's what Sanji told him). The good thing was that he didn't have to make up an excuse to go back to the lake. He too, like Sanji, had been suspecting the god's place was inside the lake or somewhere nearby and was planning to find out.

They finished their meal and were heading towards the deck when someone entered the galley door and almost bumped into them.

"S-Sunny?" The blonde cook was startled. The swordsman wasn't as surprised although it still felt weird to suddenly see Sunny.

"You guys? Where're the others?" The other blonde looked equally surprised at the sight of his two crew mates. His question surprised the two straw hats even more.

"Where have you been? I thought you were capt-missing!" Sanji corrected himself quickly, remembering he couldn't tell Zoro what the water god had told him about Sunny.

"What do you mean? I woke up in our camp and everyone's gone. I thought you all went back to our ship to get something." The other blonde said. Sanji began to suspect that like Zoro, the god blurred his memories as well.

"No, we're the only ones who stayed behind. You're gone like the others since yesterday." The swordsman said.

"What? How's that possible? I left the empty camp this morning."

Sanji and Zoro looked at each other briefly, trying to come up with what to say and guessed what the other was thinking. Both knew that it was the god's doing but felt rather helpless being banned from telling each other about their encounter with the god.

"What's going on?" Sunny pressed on but Sanji just shook his head and admitted he didn't have any answers and Zoro only kept his mouth shut.

"We have to go back to the lake. We might find something about this whole _shitty_ mess." Sanji said, mentally adding 'caused by a shitty gay god'. The other two straw hats went with him towards said lake.

To be continued...

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Yay, Sunny's back!

Sorry, there aren't a lot of going ons in the chapter and there aren't much of our favourite cook's and swordsman's interactions. It will come in the next chapter so please don't kill me~!

Um, review please?


	10. Kiss of Life

Hellloooo! I'm back with chapter 10! I decided to name my chapter from now on, just to make it look a bit better (no matter how stupid the title is) ^_^''

There'll be blushy marimo for your entertainment ;)

Please enjoy!

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**Chapter 10**

**Kiss of Life**

The three straw hats started their journey in silence. Everyone was preoccupied by their own thoughts and it seemed like the woods was imitating them, as if trying to mock them; making them slightly unsettled by the quietness of the greens around. Sanji led the little group, followed by Zoro and then Sunny who seemed to resume to his normal love-struck mode and was currently swooning over the visibly irritated green head.

"Zoro-kun, are you alright?"

"Are you tired, Zoro-kun?"

Those were the two basic questions Sunny would ask the swordsman, aside from the constant beams of how wonderful the green haired pirate was or praises over his admirable stamina and that kind of stuff. Sanji didn't really follow it, but he grew annoyed of the persistent blonde just by hearing it. He glanced occasionally over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Zoro's plummeting mood on his face as they went deeper into the forest and slightly sympathise the guy. He wondered whether his wonderful Nami-swan felt that way about his fawning but quickly dismissed the thought. She didn't look bothered at all, and if she did (which happened very rarely, mind you) she would just tell him to stop, or rather made him stop with her fist.

Ah! What a fierce beauty she was! Sanji's legs felt like a jelly by the mere thought of his orange haired goddess.

"Move, aho-cook!" The marimo grunted. His deep voice was terribly close and Sanji could actually feel his hot breath against his neck. Their bodies were almost caressing each other, literally.

Surprised, the cook hurriedly stumbled forward, desperately trying to put a space between them. Too close contact with the green head had made him felt weird lately and this time his face burned up and his body shuddered even though it's only slightly. Zoro apparently had realised the closeness and took a hasty step backward. If Sanji wasn't too busy hiding his face, he would notice the swordsman was awkwardly trying to do the same. The marimo had been increasing his pace in order to escape the other blonde's attention and create a rather too close space between them so he couldn't stop in time when Sanji stopped on his track.

"Zoro-kun! Are you okay? What did he do?" Sunny came rushing down at the two silent straw hats.

The over protective gesture somehow made the green head offended and his already bad mood plunged to dangerously bordering homicidal but then he thought better of it. His mission was, after all, to show Sunny he liked him and it would be unwise to commit violence toward the blonde prior to his little confession, however fake it was. At last, Zoro settled to just stomp away from the two blondes without a word, leaving them behind. But much to his dismay, a voice stopped him before he got farther on the track.

"It's this way, marim-" Sanji said and stopped abruptly and as expected, was quickly being countered by the other cook. Zoro wasn't sure whether he should feel appreciative or offended now, but at least Sunny was busy fighting with his other half and left him alone, for the time being.

Gosh, he hated blondes.

They reached the lake a couple of hours after minor fights, bickers, and a lot of insult trades, but luckily nothing too major happened.

"We must look more thoroughly this time; take note of unusual places. Let's split up to save time." Said Sanji, and then he added hastily "You two go together."

"Who says you could order me around, aho-cook? I'm going _alone_!" Zoro countered.

_That's what I'm trying to avoid, marimo. You and your idiot moss brain could end up on the other side of the island once you're out of our sight! _Sanji opened his mouth to voice his thought but decided against it, although his eyes still sent glares toward the meat head. The marimo knew what he was going to say, for he knew all too well that he was-um, _directionally challenged_ as some would say, although he swore it was the direction that kept changing on him. Zoro just had to snap at Sanji to annoy him. In this kind of dire situation, the swordsman could still resort to minimum grumbling if the prissy cook bossed him around after a long tiresome journey, telling him what to do; but teaming him with his idiot fawning twin? He was clearly asking for a fight!

"Fine, you're going with me!" He said instead. The marimo looked like he's going to object, but then he seemed to realise that it was the best bargain he could get and didn't complain further. It's better than to be stuck with Sunny all alone!

To both of the straw hat's surprise, Sunny didn't object and they quickly went on their separate ways; the two boys went to the west side of the lake while Sunny to the east. The weirdness of the whole situation was the only reason for Sunny's out-of character behaviour.

* * *

The swordsman followed Sanji as they walked along the lake's stony shore. He noticed the blonde was constantly looking at the water surface, as if considering to go there. There's no way he was planning to dive in too, right? It was Zoro's plan and he had been trying to come up with an excuse to make Sanji go searching somewhere else while leaving him to look around here.

"Oi, cook, I'll scan this part closely. Why don't you go look somewhere else?" He suggested, the cook looked at him with a strange expression. His face looked surprised and a little bit panicked for a few seconds before he masked it with a frown.

"No! shit-hea-uhh..., I mean; No. I'm gonna take a look here. You can check..... there!" He pointed at a clearing not so far away from their position. There was nothing beside a few stumps of dead trees and wild bushes at the clearing. The swordsman lifted his brow at his odd behaviour. Why would he insist on staying around the lake's shore? Zoro turned his head to the cook again.

"There's _nothing_ there." He pointed out, annoyed. He knew it was about him getting 'lost' in the bloody woods again so the cook told him to go to the clearing where he could still be seen from the lake. Like hell he was going to let himself be treated like a baby!

"Since you claim you're _great_ with navigation, it'll be better if you search further and leave this area to me. I wouldn't get 'lost' as long as I can see the water." He pouted slightly as he said this; it nudged his pride to have to admit his lack of navigational ability to the cook but he had to mention it to show his point.

Sanji opened his mouth to say something, but quickly cancelled it. He could see that Zoro's reasoning was stronger. He was silent and glanced between the line of the trees and the lake, seeming torn between going to either of the opposing directions but finally he made his way towards the trees. He glanced back at the swordsman as if wanting to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth until he disappeared between the low bushy trees.

Zoro scratch the side of his head idly. Just what's up with the cook today? He seemed like he's holding back something... he didn't even call him names. Zoro shrugged; for the time being the green head decided to drop it and continued on his plan. He finally managed to get rid of the blonde. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it looked like it's been a few hours after midday. He only had a couple of more hours before sunset and if things didn't turn out as he had expected, he needed to quickly move to plan B which was to make Sunny think he likes him. Zoro mentally groaned at the thought of having to do the latter and it made him hurriedly went into the water after taking off his clothes and putting away his katanas.

The blue water was lit by the generous amount of sunlight coming from the surface, allowing the swordsman to see farther underwater. The water was somewhat murky near the lake bed where there were a lot of overgrown algae. Zoro could see small group of tiny fishes swimming around them and several timid dark shelled crap too but aside from them, the lake was pretty lifeless. He swam farther, passed a dead tree log and several dark green water plants but so far found nothing unusual. His oxygen shortage was running low and his lungs started to burn, so he decided to resurface. It was before he turned around that he caught a glimpse of big rocks formation that looked like an entrance of a cave. Bingo! He thought victoriously before hurrying to the surface.

After taking several harsh deep breaths, the green head dove in and searched for the rocks he had seen. It wasn't that hard to find again after he saw it. The cave entrance was hidden behind rows of long leafed water plants and could only be seen when the plants was moved in certain ways by the water. He was lucky to see it at the right moment.

_Ha! Water god my ass!_ Thought Zoro. The lake water had just betrayed their master by showing it to Zoro and he grinned at his small victory for a short while before his suspicion that it was all part of the water brat's trick to trap him grew. He frowned but refused to back away from his original plan. It's too late to turn back now when he was nearly in front of the cave's entrance. He swam passed the last water plant and entered the cave.

It was pretty dark inside, but the light from the outside helped a little and soon his eyes adjusted it selves to the surroundings, enabling him to make out more of the cave's surfaces. The narrow cave walls turned slightly as he swam deeper inside but it didn't seem like it had an end. Zoro was sure he had swam quite far but the walls were just kept going. It could be some sort of natural underwater tunnel that led somewhere else but there was no way to reach it through this seemingly endless tunnel alive. He decided to turn back if he found nothing in the next couple of seconds. His heavy trainings and deep meditations had paid off in this kind of situation. No ordinary man would be able to hold their breath and made it as far as he could.

The familiar burning felling in his lungs told him that he would need another air supply soon but then he saw vague light coming from the direction he was heading and soon he was showered with rays of sunlight. The cave walls suddenly formed a huge chamber of dark green and purple stone and before he knew it, he was already emerging from the water surface. Huge stalactites were hanging on the cave's ceiling and there was a hole from where the sunlight was coming. Zoro studied his new surroundings briefly. It must be in a place higher than the water level which meant he was out of the lake somewhere. The air was humid and filled with fungus stench.

There was a part of rocky surface which was untouched by the water in the middle of the cave and Zoro climbed there to dry himself a bit and studied the cave walls better. He decided that it was the end of the cave. There was no other way that led to more cave chamber, it seemed. And what's more disappointing was there's nothing in there besides stalactites and the vague sound of dripping water. It was an empty cave, quite the contrary of what he had been expecting to find.

Feeling slightly dejected, the swordsman got into the water again and began to swim back towards the lake. He was swimming through the long tunnel-like cave and when the walls turned narrower, he suddenly felt something tugged on his right leg. He quickly jerked his leg away from whatever tangling on him but the movements only made his other leg got caught. He looked down to see forest of dark algae plants on the bottom of the narrow tunnel. It was easy to be tangled on them due to their long rope-like shape. He was swimming too close to them, since he hadn't notice them in the first journey and didn't pay attention.

_Oh crap. I don't have time for this. _Zoro bent to untangle his feet. He pulled several times and finally managed to free one of his legs but now one of his hands was tangled together with his trapped leg.

_Great. Now my hand is tangled too. _He tried to pull away but the plant would only tightened around him so he tried to untangle it and somehow his other hand ended up tangled too. He gave a mental sarcastic laugh at his predicament.

_Oh hohoho! Just... perfect!!_

_Damnit! I really don't have time for this shit!_ He cursed when his violent struggles were proved fruitless. He was getting hysterical now. His lungs were running out of air while he was wasting time to break free from the stupid plants. If only he got one of his swords with him... Ah, the irony. Like hell he was going to let some plants killed him easily! And even if he was going to die, he'd died fighting! No matter how stupid he might look like while struggling against their harmless looking stem...

_Argh, Damniiittt!! I'm not gonna die like this!! _The thought gave him a temporary renewed surge of energy and he began to kick and swing his arms wildly. He was drained out of energy soon after and gradually ceased his resistance. There was no more air in his lungs and they burned painfully inside his chest. Just when the lights around him started to dim, he felt air was blown to his lungs. Not much, but enough to drag him back to full consciousness.

His eyes widened as he saw Sanji looking back at him. He couldn't imagine how relieved he was to see the prissy cook's face again. He pulled his now almost wholly tangled limbs slightly to show the cook his situation and the cook shook his head. Zoro wasn't sure what he was trying to say and pulled his limbs again. This time Sanji waved both his hands and shook his head rapidly.

_What? ...don't pull?_ Zoro tried to ask with his questioning eyes. He gave a slight pull again, trying to gesticulate his question. The blonde shook his head once more and the green head took it as a 'don't pull'.

Sanji raised his hands and gestured a 'wait/stay' sign to the green head then began to examine the trapped body parts under him. He waited for a moment then began to slowly untangle one of Zoro's hands. He managed to free it at last, but they were both short in air supply so he told the swordsman to wait again and swam away. At first, the green head thought he was going to grab one of his swords from the lake's shore to chop it all off, but then he realised the cook was heading towards the opposite direction. What was the cook planning to do? he wondered anxiously.

Shortly after, the cook was back and the first thing he did was to bring their mouths together which caught Zoro by surprise. Deep blush was creeping up his face in an instant. He opened his mouth reflexively but his words were swollen back as new air was blown into his lungs.

Ah, he got it now. Sanji was sharing his air supply and continued untangling his other hand slowly. His hands were free now but they would need another supply of oxygen before they could untangle his feet.

Wait. That meant the cook had to do it _again_ at least twice, seeing how he had tangled his legs much worse than his hands; it's gonna take longer to set his legs free, even if he helped.

Zoro's face heated up and his lips were tingling with funny sensations.

_Oh shit._

TBC

* * *

Yay! Two more kisses and more blushy Zoro to come! XD

Oh, don't forget to review ok? I'm sure there's a lot of mistakes here since I didn't have it beta-ed. See ya next time!


	11. What feelings was this?

Gyaa!! Sorry girls, for updating this so late. I kept changing the last part and still not satisfied with it, but never mind...

Um, what else? Oh, thanks for the reviews girls! You're all awesome! XOXO

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**What feelings was this?**

The entire 'untangling of his legs' part had been done in less than fifteen minutes and each of the mouth-to-mouth was even much more shorter yet it felt like hours for the swordsman. They ended up having to repeat the same 'air sharing' method three times before Zoro was completely free and they both could swam for the lake's surface. Despite repeatedly trying to convince himself the opposite, the swordsman found he was _slightly-_repeat:_ slightly_ enjoying the moment their lips touched. He was even wished for a split second that somehow the plants would not be so easy to untangle so that they would need to do 'it' a few times more. He'd grew to like the feel of the cook's mouth on him after the first two 'kisses' and gradually began to relax on the third contact. After the last mouth contact, he felt a sudden vague feeling of lost.

No! Of course he didn't feel that way! The fact that he was reacting to the kisses was not very shocking to him since he found out that he preferred males rather than their fairer gender counterparts for quite a while even before he joined Luffy, but it was Sanji he was talking about! That guy was a swooning idiot whenever he saw a creature with boobs! There's no way he liked the guy! Hold on a sec, saying he _liked_ him was a total exaggeration. Even if he truly enjoyed the kiss, not that he did of course, it didn't mean he'd grew certain feelings for the cook. It's just a natural reaction of a normal human being when they were kissed by another person. Even Luffy would have that kind of reactions.... right? Wait, Luffy couldn't be counted as normal; the kid was _waaay_ beyond normal.

How about himself? Was _he_ normal? Come to think of it, none of the crew member was really normal, didn't they?

Now wait a minute, it was out of the topic! Where was he again? Oh right; those _stupid_ kisses-they're not even really a kiss-but why did he think about it so much? Thinking about him 'thinking' of it made his face grew redder as memories of the blonde and the feel of cold wet mouth touched his was replayed again and again in his head.

_Shit, I can't get it out of my head! It must be because I almost drown down there... yup! That must be it! _The green head told himself.

"Oi, you okay?" Sanji's voice interrupted Zoro's train of thoughts. His eyes studied his crew mate's face intensely. "You look sick."

"N-No, m'fine!" The green head hurriedly croaked and looked away but Sanji seemed like he was rather preoccupied by his own thought since he only nodded then lowered his eyes to the ground, much to Zoro's relief. He really had bad luck with the damn lake since they arrived just a few days ago. Come to think of it, he was almost drown twice in the same lake had Sanji hadn't helped him. That meant the cook had saved his ass two times in a row. Damn it, he felt like a total invalid.

They were both resting on the lake shore, soaking wet and slightly coughing and panting from exertion.

"...were you following me?" Asked the swordsman after a moment of silence. He knew what the answer would be since how else the cook could just suddenly appear in the last minute, but he wanted to know the reason. The cook turned his head and studied the green head for a few seconds, as if considering what to say.

"I just suddenly remembered you could also get lost underwater but I didn't know water plants were greatly attracted to you too." He said, causing Zoro to scowl. The bastard was trying to avoid giving a direct answer, but he didn't deny it.

"Any _particular_ reason?"

"No, I just thought there might be clues to find." the blonde answered shortly. It still didn't answer why he was rather persistent about going into the water earlier. Did he know something Zoro didn't? The green head was sure Sanji would tell if it was about the crew, so it must be something else although he couldn't think of any possibilities as to why the cook would lie about it. The swordsman decided to drop it and focused on more related matter at hand. More of his time had been wasted for nothing. His first plan had failed, that meant he needed to move onto the next plan.

_Fuck._

He really didn't feel like doing it, but the brat might take his non cooperative act as a reason to harm his captured friends. He didn't want that to happen. Besides, what he was asked sounded rather easy; he just needed to make Sunny think he had positive feelings towards him right? And made sure Sanji knew it. It won't be that hard with Sunny. He was already acting like a love-struck moron even without Zoro doing anything. The rather difficult part was Sanji. The bastard might laugh his lungs out to death or worst; disgusted upon knowing Zoro's sexuality. There's a big possibility that he was one of those homophobic (being a very straight guy he was) and there's no doubt he wouldn't look at the swordsman the same way, ever again.

Zoro surprised himself with how much he cared about Sanji's opinion towards him. Why would he care? They hated each other so if the cook thought less about him, it didn't really matter. It shouldn't matter to him, right?

_We hate each other, period. I don't give a shit what curly brow think about me! _He convinced himself. Still, he couldn't help feeling hurt imagining the cook's disgusted expression upon knowing his sexual preference. He tried to console himself by saying that it wouldn't matter either way; sooner or later the cook would eventually find it out, since there's no telling when they would be on their separate ways until all of them found one piece and reached their own dreams.

The green head stood up and began to put on his clothes. After making sure his katanas were hung safely on his waist, he turned at the silent cook. The blonde tried to light one of his soaked cigarette from his pocket and after a few failed attempts, he muttered a curse and threw it frustratedly on the ground. The swordsman had a feeling there's something stressing out the guy. Zoro had very rarely ever seen Sanji tried to fiddle with ruined cigarette; it's useless. There were a few occasions, however, when he saw the cook tried to lit a wet cigarette between his lips and it was when they're facing a very serious situations. Something was deeply bothering him.

It made him suspected that something must had happened yesterday, while Velturus took control of his body. The blonde had been acting like that since the last time Zoro talked to him on the deck the other day. He would squeezed the answers from the cook later; whether he liked it or not, but first he needed to proceed with plan B and it would need Sanji's cooperation without him knowing he was part of the scheme. Gee, that made him almost felt as bad as the orange haired scheming witch... For once, the swordsman instantly regretted calling the navigator 'witch'. He was concerned about her too, she was his nakama, even though she acted like a total _bitch_ sometimes.

There he went again. Oh well, it couldn't be helped.

Ok, now he needed to make a logical excuse for them to go look for the other blonde.

"We should find Sunny." He began. It took a few seconds before the cook turned his attention back to the green head, his brow raised in questioning expression.

"Uh, I mean, he could've found something..." Zoro added lamely and he mentally winced at his excuse. Was that the best argument he could come up with? Again, the swordsman blamed it on his near death experience. The cook stared at the swordsman but he seemed like looking somewhere beyond him, as if he was in a trance. He didn't look like he was really listening to what Zoro was saying too.

Zoro was considering to repeat louder but then the blonde stood up and reluctantly walked passed his crew mate. He put his hands in his pants pockets and mouth sealed tightly. His pale lips looked strange without the presence of a cigarette. The swordsman just stood still, fixing his gaze at the cook; trying to guess what the other was doing but finally got the idea and quickly followed after him towards the forest in the direction they last saw Sunny was heading.

In the beginning of their walk through the forest, there was no sound besides the breeze blowing through the tree leaves and the sound of dried leaves or the crunching sound of dried tree branch under their feet. Not a single word was traded between the two pirates.

Zoro had to constantly increase his pace in order to adjust to the cook's pace. One time the swordsman almost lost the cook (not that he's worried he'd be left behind by the bastard or something) but the cook didn't even seem to hear it when he tried to call him. Luckily his blonde hair was not that hard to spot against the green surroundings and the swordsman managed to catch up to his crew mate in no time. Imagine what might happen if they ended up separated when it was only less than two hours left before sunset. It could be days before the swordsman crossed path with him or Sunny again and Zoro didn't want to imagine what the delay might bring to the others' safety.

He decided that he would not let it slip any longer. For whatever fucking reason the cook had been acting off-guard, he would have to stop it. He grabbed the cook's slumping shoulder with a firm grip and forced him to stop on his track.

"Oi, baka-cook! What the hell's your problem?" He demanded. Sanji's careless behaviour could endangered everything they had been working on to safe the crew and it pissed him off.

The reply never came out of the cook who kept his back on the green head. This irritated the swordsman's further and he attempted to get the guy to turn around and faced him.

"I'm _asking,_ you curly br-!!" Suddenly he felt himself loosing balance and his grips on the other man's shoulders were slipping as he was yanked forward by the arm. He grunted as his still wounded shoulder crashed painfully onto the forest ground. He hadn't expected the cook to do something like this but what surprised him was what he did right after.

The cook knocked Zoro's face with his, slamming their mouths together and almost crushed their noses in the process. He took advantage of his crew mate's opened lips; which intended to let out a protest, and plunged his tongue into the hot cavern. The swordsman was frozen for a good couple of seconds, overwhelmed by his body's instant reaction while the cook raided his mouth roughly. Then the cook suddenly stopped and pulled away, leaving Zoro all flustered with embarrassment.

If the cook was aware of the fierce blush on Zoro's cheeks or the growing bulge on the other's pants, he didn't show it. Instead, he fixed his visible blue eye intently at the green head's and began to speak.

"...Zoro," He said, his voice was no more than a whisper and if their faces weren't so close apart, the swordsman would've missed it. The mention of his name made the green head tensed. He wasn't sure he'd want to hear what the cook was going to say next; the tone in Sanji's voice was... unsettling somehow.

"I.... I like you." He managed to spill out the difficult words but the dark green eyes looking back at him only blinked in response. His face was as red as Zoro himself but the cook kept his fixed gaze on the swordsman's.

"_W-What?!_" The green head quickly shoved the blonde off of him and scrambled away. He realised his voice sounded like an undignified squeak Usopp made and he regretted it a split second later. Why the hell's he over reacted like a school girl? But most importantly, why the hell the idiot skirt-worshipper cook suddenly said _that_ to _him_? What happened to his ladies-man ego?

The swordsman quickly stood up and resumed his angry mode. His hands curled into fists and he glared daggers at the blonde standing before him. There's only one explanation to this; the cook was making fun of him. He couldn't care less if Sanji knew he's gay now, but he had never imagined the blonde would ever mock him the way he did, no matter what a jackass Sanji could be. The green head felt like someone had just kicked him hard on the chest. It's kinda hurt.

"What are you trying to pull, _bastard_?!" He growled angrily Zoro was a little surprised at how angry he sounded, but he didn't care. It was Sanji's problem if he had a personal vendetta with homos, but he couldn't just humiliate him and walked away with it. "Do that again and you're death."

Okay, maybe he was angrier than he should have, even though he wasn't really knew why. The fact that it was done by Sanji might be reason enough to do so.

The cook, however, seemed taken aback by his hostility and his mouth opened and closed without a word coming out. He finally managed to mutter something but the swordsman had already turned his back on him and started to trot away, refusing to listen to the cook. He didn't get far, since a hand roughly grabbed his arm and stop him soon after.

"The fuck-?" Zoro spun around and shoved the cook's hand away.

"I'm serious." said the blonde cook in firm tone. There it was again, the same tone and the look in his eye. He was dead serious, which was why it bothered Zoro a lot. He couldn't be telling the truth; he hated men, right? He hated _him_! There's no way the mutual loathing suddenly turned the complete opposite in a few days! And what actually made Zoro furious (now he realised it) was how much a tiny voice inside his head wished it to be true.

"Why?"

"...What?"

"Why do this?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's _not_ funny, jackass!"

"It's not! You think I'm kidding you, baka marimo?"

".....but, I thought you like-uhh, _girls_."

"Yeah, so? Is it that weird I like _you_ too?" The cook's remark made Zoro's lips went numb. His face heated up in an instant. Sanji suddenly quieted down and turned his eyes on the patch of grass around his feet. He gazed at it intently as if he had never seen a patch of grass in his entire life.

Then he nervously cleared his throat and spoke again. "D-Did you like it?"

".....like it?" Zoro looked puzzled for a moment but soon realised what the blonde was asking about. "....i-it's..... I-uh..." _Shit, why does the bastard made me stutter so much?_

"Zoro-kwuunnnn!!" A familiar voice suddenly called from a distance.

Ah saved by the bell.

Or not.

Sunny was practically jumping his way towards the two as the warm light of the sun shone in the background. The orange orb was hanging low in the peachy-red coloured sky, signing it was near dusk. Meaning now was his last chance to finish what he had been planning to do, no matter how much he wanted to abandon it and return the cook's feelings.

TBC

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Sooo, how was it? Comments, critiques, suggestions? Please give me some feedback :)


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